Comparison of Research Methods
extended space for comments, researchers can partially neutralize this disadvantage. Comments are among the most helpful of all pieces of information on a questionnaire and they usually provide insightful information that would otherwise be absent.
3. Nearly 90 percent of all communication is visual. Gestures and other visual cues are not available with written questionnaires. The lack of personal contact will have varying effects depending on the type of information being requested. A questionnaire asking for factual information will probably not be affected by lack of personal contact. A questionnaire probing sensitive issues or attitudes, however, may be severely affected.
4. When returned questionnaires arrive in the mail, it's natural to assume that the respondents are, in fact, the same people you initially sent the questionnaires to. This may not actually be the case, however. Business questionnaires often get handed down to inferiors for completion. Housewives sometimes complete questionnaires for their husbands. Kids may respond to them as pranks. For a variety of reasons, respondents may not be those initially targeted.
5. Finally, questionnaires are simply not appropriate for some people. A written survey to a group of poorly educated people, for instance, may not succeed because of poor reading skills within the group. More frequently, however, people are turned off by written questionnaires because of misuse.
As Internet usage increases, online questionnaires are rapidly gaining popularity. Online questionnaires can be divided into three categories: e-mail questionnaires, computer-direct questionnaires, and web-based questionnaires. They have the significant advantages of speed, cost-efficiency, and flexibility, but also carry sampling limitations.
Advantages of Online Questionnaires
1. Online questionnaires are extremely fast. A questionnaire posted on a popular website can produce thousands of responses within a few hours. E-mail questionnaires can produce similar responses within days.
2. There is practically no cost involved once the set-up has been completed. Large samples do not cost more than smaller ones.
3. You can attach pictures and sound files. Some web survey software can play video as well. If you want to show video or both sound and graphics, a web-based questionnaire may be the only practical way to have many people view and respond to video.
4. A significant number of people will to, when giving their answers to a computer, instead of to a person or on paper. (I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS.)
5. You will get more accurate answers to sensitive questions, such as drug use or sex. Recent studies have shown that respondents are more likely to provide honest feedback on a computer surveys than on paper questionnaires or with human interviewers. The National Institute of Justice has found that computer-aided surveys among drug users get better results than personal interviews.
6. Ensuring skip patterns are accurately followed. The Survey System can ensure people are not asked questions they should skip based on their earlier answers. These automatic skips are more accurate than relying on an interviewer reading a paper questionnaire.
Disadvantages of Online Questionnaires
1. The interviewees must have access to a computer.
2. As many people still do [next page]