Chapter 9: Programming the survey

Question 1

Which is more important, survey lay-out or survey instruments and why?

Answer 1

1. Survey instruments, research shows little evidence of the effect of layout of the survey.

Question 2

What might lead to higher response rates? Automatic or manual login and why?

Answer 2

1. Automatic login - probably because less effort is needed from the respondent in the first case

Question 3

What is a scrolling design in web surveys?

Answer 3

Scrolling design is all questions on one page

Question 4

What ia a paging design in web surveys?

Answer 4

1. One question per page

Question 5

What are the four reasons to use a scrolling design and not paging (recommended)

Answer 5

1. in very short questionnaires
2. When context is important,
3. When there is little routing or skip options and
4. when item non-response is no problem or answers are mandatory

Question 6

What is are 2 advantages of scrolling design?

Answer 6

1. Respondents can see length of the survey

2. Because similarity to paper-based surveys, minimal differential measurement errors due to mode differences

Question 7

What are 3 disadvantages of a scrolling design

Answer 7

1. Close browser before submitting means no data is stored
2. Checks and routing are more difficult to use
3. Higher item-non response and shorter completion times

Question 8

What are the 2 advantages and one disadvantage of a paging design?

Answer 8

1. Answers are saved, allowing to stop and continue
2. Easily customization of text, randomization, feedback, automatized skips and so on
3. disadvantage: one can not see entire survey length, possibly scaring people off

Question 9

What is a Grid/Matrix survey design?

Answer 9

1. Multiple items on one screen but not all

Question 10

What are advantages and disadvantages of matrix/grid design?

Answer 10

1. Advantage: reduces number of screens and amount of scrolling
2. Disadvantage: sometimes higher inter-item correlation because people see them as more related because they are grouped together

Question 11

In General, what should the welcome screen contain? (5)

Answer 11

1. Where the survey is from
2. What the survey is about
3. Privacy and confidentiallity
4. Estimated time to complete
5. As short as possible

Question 12

What is your foveal view and why is this important in survey design?

Answer 12

1. Small visual field with a visual span of about 8 characters
2. Bring this into the visual working memory allows for more ease recalling thus answering more often in the desired format

Question 13

What are different answer formats (6)

Answer 13

1. Radio buttons
2. Checkboxes
3. Drop-down menu’s
4. Slider bars and visual analogue scales
5. Text fields
6. Grids/Matrices
7. Labelling of scalar questions

Question 14

What is a radio button

Answer 14

1. Round button that can be clicked on to provide an answer

Question 15

what is a checkbox

Answer 15

Swuares that can be ticked to provide an answer

Question 16

What is important when designing / using radio buttons? (3)

Answer 16

1. Answer categories should be mutually exclusive
2. Alignment can be vertical and horizontal, no best alignment
3. Multiple banking (table style) has severe ordering effects

Question 17

What is important to know with drop-down menu’s in surveyy design (3)

Answer 17

1. Visible options are clicked on more frequently
2. Primacy effects (because they require more action)
3. DO NOT USE IT FOR BIRTH YEAR, HECKING ANNOYING

Question 18

What are 2 approaches for programming the routing in a survey?

Answer 18

1. Linear programming - the selection of a response option triggers the system to display the next applicable question
2. Object-related programming - If this, then that, otherwise that. Should always be preferred

Question 19

What are the different types of error messages / checks? (3)

Answer 19

1. Soft checks - warnings that can be ignored by the respondent, able to complete
2. Hard checks - warnings that can not be ignored, unable to complete
3. Edit checks - Hard check in combination with an error message. Think of age between 0 - 99. Error message is friendly and polite

Question 20

What can you tell me about a progress indicator (3)?

Answer 20

1. Dilemma - you want to know how long, but knowing could scare people away
2. Not always true - because of routing you can be a lot further than it seems on the progress bar
3. Best option: indicate survey length at the beginning of the survey

Question 21

What is a fill in an online survey?

Answer 21

1. Question 1 = what is the name of your first kid (Henk)
2. Question 2 = how old is Henk?

Fill is the autosave of earlier given information that is used in to auto-fill later questions

Question 22

What can be said about the use of mandatory questions (3)?

Answer 22

1. The decision is for the insight of the researcher
2. Debate in ethics (how ethical is it to use - (privacy, burden, freedom)
3. How much is the information needed