This is my ha-penny worth.
It depends what we mean by online survey. A survey conducted of
random sample of students at Sheffield University where those
involved were contacted by email (all students are registered for
email these days and have access to the web) and either the
survey is on a password protected web page with the info to
contact it sent out by email.Then the objections would to me seem
to be on the grounds of technophobia.
A survey where it is a web page placed on a specific website that
relies on people going to that website and filling in the form seems
to me to have major flaws. If this survey then purported to say
something about all people, or even all internet users I would be
highly suspicious.
Yet if it is to gather customer satisfaction of the website it is
certainly as good a selection technique as the forms left in service
stations by the till are. The of course no-one would see this as
scientific research would they?
This debate rather reminds me of the pro-anti database debate.
Databases are great ways of storing data from you present
research. It is only when you start to use historical data in your
research that you run up again fundamental flaws.
Jean M. Russell
From: "Simon, Steve, PhD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: On-line survey
Date sent: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 17:51:48 -0500
> I was worried too about the moralistic and/or contentious tones of some of
> these emails. While the points brought out are certainly valid, I wonder if
> we end up scaring off people by being so strident in our criticisms.
>
> Perhaps a softer approach might be to emphasize that an on-line survey (or a
> convenience sample) is useful only for pilot studies and that any such
> survey ought to be followed up with a more rigorous sampling scheme.
>
> This places sharp limits on the interpretation of data from such a survey,
> but at the same time is a less discouraging message.
>
> What do other people think? I worry about someone who comes in here after
> spending a lot of time collecting information and the only response they get
> is that their data is worthless. Such a response might scare them away from
> consulting a statistician for the next three decades.
>
> Can we get by with calling their work a pilot study, or are we sugar coating
> the bad news that they need to hear?
>
> Steve Simon, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Standard Disclaimer.
> STATS - Steve's Attempt to Teach Statistics: http://www.cmh.edu/stats
> <http://www.cmh.edu/stats>
>
>
>
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Jean M. Russell M.A. M.Sc. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Corporate Information & Computing Services,
University of Sheffield
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United Kingdom
Phone: 0114-222-3098
Fax : 0114-222-3040
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