Advantages and disadvantages of online survey

1. BY :
PURUSHOTHAMAN
RA1952001020072

2.  a survey is a list of questions aimed at
extracting specific data from a particular
group of people. Surveys may be conducted
by phone, mail, via the internet, and
sometimes face-to-face on busy street
corners or in malls. Surveys are used to
increase knowledge in fields such as social
research and demography.

3.  Online (Internet) surveys are becoming an essential
research tool for a variety of research fields,
including marketing, social and official statistics
research. According to ESOMAR online survey
research accounted for 20% of global data-collection
expenditure in 2006.[1] They offer capabilities beyond
those available for any other type of self-
administered questionnaire.[16] Online consumer
panels are also used extensively for carrying out
surveys but the quality is considered inferior because
the panelists are regular contributors and tend to be
fatigued.

4.  However, when estimating the
measurement quality (defined as product
of reliability and validity) using
a multitrait-mutlimethod approach
(MTMM), some studies found a quite
reasonable quality [17][18] and even that
the quality of a series of questions in an
online opt-in panel (Netquest) was very
similar to the measurement quality for
the same questions asked in the European
Social Survey (ESS), which is a face-to-
face survey

5.  There are several ways of administering a
survey.[3] Within a survey, different methods
can be used for different parts. For example,
interviewer administration can be used for
general topics but self-administration for
sensitive topics. The choice between
administration modes is influenced by
several factors, including
 1) costs,
 2) coverage of the target population
(including group-specific preferences for
certain modes[4]),
 3) flexibility of asking questions,

6.  4) respondents’ willingness to participate and
 5) response accuracy. Different methods
create mode effects that change how
respondents answer. The most common
modes of administration are listed under the
following headings.[5]

7.  Web surveys are faster, simpler, and
cheaper.[2] However, lower costs are not so
straightforward in practice, as they are strongly
interconnected to errors. Because response rate
comparisons to other survey modes are usually not
favourable for online surveys, efforts to achieve a
higher response rate (e.g., with traditional
solicitation methods) may substantially increase
costs.[1]
 The entire data collection period is significantly
shortened, as all data can be collected and processed
in little more than a month.[2]
 Interaction between the respondent and the
questionnaire is more dynamic compared to e-mail or
paper surveys.[16] Online surveys are also less
intrusive, and they suffer less from social desirability
effects.[2]
 Complex skip patterns can be implemented in ways
that are mostly invisible to the respondent.[16]

8.  Pop-up instructions can be provided for
individual questions to provide help with
questions exactly where assistance is
required.[16]
 Questions with long lists of answer choices can
be used to provide immediate coding of answers
to certain questions that are usually asked in an
open-ended fashion in paper questionnaires.[16]
 Online surveys can be tailored to the situation
(e.g., respondents may be allowed save a
partially completed form, the questionnaire may
be preloaded with already available information,
etc.).[2]
 Online questionnaires may be improved by
applying usability testing, where usability is
measured with reference to the speed with
which a task can be performed, the frequency of
errors and user satisfaction with the interface.[2]

9.  Sampling. The difference between probability
samples (where the inclusion probabilities for all
units of the target population is known in advance)
and non-probability samples (which often require less
time and effort but generally do not support
statistical inference) is crucial. Probability samples
are highly affected by problems of non-coverage (not
all members of the general population have Internet
access) and frame problems (online survey invitations
are most conveniently distributed using e-mail, but
there are no e-mail directories of the general
population that might be used as a sampling frame).
Because coverage and frame problems can
significantly impact data quality, they should be
adequately reported when disseminating the research
results.[1][24]

10.  Invitations to online surveys. Due to the lack
of sampling frames many online survey
invitations are published in the form of an
URL link on web sites or in other media,
which leads to sample selection bias that is
out of research control and to non-
probability samples. Traditional solicitation
modes, such as telephone or mail invitations
to web surveys, can help overcoming
probability sampling issues in online surveys.
However, such approaches are faced with
problems of dramatically higher costs and
questionable effectiveness.[1]

11.  Non-response. Online survey response rates are
generally low and also vary extremely – from less
than 1% in enterprise surveys with e-mail invitations
to almost 100% in specific membership surveys. In
addition to refusing participation, terminating
surveying during the process or not answering certain
questions, several other non-response patterns can
be observed in online surveys, such as lurking
respondents and a combination of partial and item
non-response. Response rates can be increased by
offering monetary or some other type of incentive to
the respondents, by contacting respondents several
times (follow-up), and by keeping the questionnaire
difficulty as low as possible.[1] There are draw-backs
to using an incentive to garner a response. Non-bias
responses could be questioned in this type of
situation. The most concrete way to gain feedback is
to publicize what is done with the results. To take
concrete actions based on feedback and to show that
to the customer base is extremely motivating to
customers to continue to let their voice be heard.

12.  Platform Issues. Lack of familiarity with the platform
used can cause participants and clients
confusion.[citation needed]
 Questionnaire design. While modern web
questionnaires offer a range of design features
(different question types, images, multimedia), the
use of such elements should be limited to the extent
necessary for respondents to understand questions or
to stimulate the response. It should not affect their
responses, because that would mean lower validity
and reliability of data. Appropriate questionnaire
design can help lowering the measurement error that
can arise also due to the respondents or the survey
mode itself (respondent’s motivation, computer
literacy, abilities, privacy concerns, etc.).

13.  Post-survey adjustments. Various robust
procedures have been developed for situations
where sampling deviate from probability
selection, or, when we face non-coverage and
non-response problems. The standard statistical
inference procedures (e.g. confidence interval
calculations and hypothesis testing) still require
a probability sample. The actual survey practice,
particularly in marketing research and in public
opinion polling, which massively neglects the
principles of probability samples, increasingly
requires from the statistical profession to specify
the conditions where non-probability samples
may work.