The use of online survey tools has become an effective and informative way to connect directly with customers. Statistics from these tools provide reliable insights into markets, customers and strategies (Burns, 2016). Small businesses find it costly to hire professional firms, and the process can be easier and cheaper if done by an individual. Conducting online surveys helps to develop business plans that are guided by intelligent analysis rather than feelings and guesswork (Christensen, 2011). Technology has further facilitated `the development of software solutions that make it possible to create, administer and interpret different types of surveys either using their websites hosted on web pages (Fan & Yan, 2010). Most online survey tools employ a technique called ‘software as a service’ that make them more user-friendly with the services either being free or paid. Other plans are charged according to the size of the sample.
On the SurveyMonkey website, two survey templates (K-12 Parent and U.S Political Identification) were used to evaluate the usability, options, and costs. Usability is used to test how well the respondents will fill the surveys, how they will understand the questions and types of response options. There are many errors that can be used to evaluate usability such as non-observation and observation/measurement errors. In the second type, the true value differs from the one reported by the respondent. The problem was more evident in the K-12 Parent survey where it was difficult to tell the exact number of times of an event happening like meeting teachers in person within a month. The qualitative political survey did not have these errors because the answers were definite. Surveys should also have response options arranged in a logical order so that the participants can fully understand the questions thus avoiding accidental selection of wrong answers (Tourangeau & Yan, 2007).
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There are many research topics that can employ quantitative measurements. A good example is, “How does social media influence affect students’ performance?” The findings will identify causality with an optimal control of the variables. One of the variables to be measured using quantitative design is the average time spent online. A sample four-item instrument to measure a variable in the research is presented below. The questions are selected from the measurement needed for a certain variable, which in this case, is time.
Sample Four-Item Instrument
Choose one option for every questionnaire item.
1. What is the average time spend on social media per day?
2. Has your performance been influenced by the average time used online?
3. Do you intend to reduce the time spent on the internet and focus more on academic work?
4. During the past one week, how much time have you spend researching for academic work?
The population of interest refers to the subset of the entire population in which the researcher wants to focus on. Parameters must be set to limit the scope of the data to be collected. In this case, the population of interest can be university or high school students who frequent social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To effectively reach participants, a snowballing technique would be appropriate in which one social media user would help identify another user within the institution based on the identity and number of followers or users. Because of the physical barriers, once the users have been identified, emails with the survey questions would be sent for them to fill at their free time but within a specified period. Besides, it would be possible to use pop-ups on smartphones where a potential participant undergoes a screening test.
Conducting the survey by recruiting participants to fill the document in person would be different because of the time taken to manually distribute the questionnaires to the students. Without the help of the pop-ups and much improved snowballing technique, it would further be difficult to narrow down to the right and specific population sample that has students spending their significant time online, either for academic purposes or not. Students not using the social media platforms should be excluded through a carefully and well thought out criteria because they are not affected by the online presence.
The sample four-item instrument could also be filled in person to determine the appropriateness of the options provided as well as the ease of readability and the time taken to complete the exercise. Below is a filled copy of the sample questions filled as a participant.
A Filled Four-Item Instrument
Choose one option for every questionnaire item.
1. What is the average time spend on social media per day?
2. Has your performance been influenced by the average time used online?
3. Do you intend to reduce the time spent on the internet and focus more on academic work?
4. During the past one week, how much time have you spend researching for academic work?
Providing multiple answers for every question ensured that filling the online survey was an easy task. Most of the questions had a wide range of options to ensure there was a high degree of precision in selecting the desired answer. The ease of understanding the words used is also critical to avoid giving wrong responses to the vital survey to be used by policymakers in schools’ setting. The use of technical terms is only necessary when targeting people with advanced knowledge on a topic (Fan & Yan, 2010). Some of the most common readability tests that can be used in this case are gunning fog index and the Coleman Liau Index. It is, however, possible to determine whether the readability index fits a given population even without conducting the tests.
As an independent scholar, the most appropriate data collection strategy would be an indirect contact facilitated by web surveys and using databases. Direct contact might be given an interviewee a chance to probe and capture the feelings of respondents, but it would be a time-consuming exercise (Salkind, 2010). The choice made on this approach is further necessary because the targeted population is largely composed of the internet user, hence the right environment for sampling. Collecting data in person (direct contact) makes it possible to use trained interviewers to provide assistance although it rarely allows the respondents to have enough privacy (Tourangeau & Yan, 2007). The five senses can also be stimulated and further make it possible to interview respondents that are hard to reach such as senior citizens, groups with low internet penetration, and low-income persons that might not have the access to the internet (Salkind, 2010).
Collecting data online is more advantageous because it avoids challenges in logistical coordination. A person carrying out a survey will need to be highly organized and ensure that all regions or geographical locations with the required information have been visited. The work of the research project manager is further made easier and brief because the questions can be administered with minimal screening and recruiting procedures. Online surveys have relatively lower interviewer errors because of the accuracy of predicting the targeted population. Otherwise, there will be high chances of getting interviewees who do not understand the instructions because of the ineffective process of validation. The two methodologies can, however, be combined to avoid the challenges posed and further facilitating flexibility.
There are other possible topics best suited for online data collection because of the convenience in terms of the entry of data and information for faster processing, limitations of the sample size and the cost (Salkind, 2010). A good example would be an interview or a questionnaire administered to determine the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics in manufacturing and assembly industries. The research question will require a specific population that has used these latest technologies and accessing them would be a challenge because of the need to travel to industrialized countries like Japan with leading global assembly companies. Another topic that requires online techniques would be the one investing the role of service providers in either promoting or undermining net-neutrality. It would be difficult to conduct a research on net neutrality while targeting people who are not aware of the concept, which is now affecting how the government is offering its services in the modern day.
References
Burns, P. (2016). Entrepreneurship and small business . Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Christensen, L. B., Johnson, B., Turner, L. A., & Christensen, L. B. (2011). Research methods, design, and analysis.
Fan, W., & Yan, Z. (2010). Factors affecting response rates of the web survey: A systematic review. Computers in human behavior , 26 (2), 132-139.
Salkind, N. J. (Ed.). (2010). Encyclopedia of research design (Vol. 1). Sage.
Tourangeau, R., & Yan, T. (2007). Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychological bulletin , 133 (5), 859.
