Overcoming Survey Research Problems

Overcoming Survey Research Problems PDF Author: Stephen R. Porter
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book Here

Book Description
Paper and electronic surveys of students and faculty have become increasingly popular in higher education research and are now used in almost all facets of assessment and planning. Yet as the demand for survey research has increased, survey response rates have been falling. Low response rates are problematic because they can call into question the validity of the results, as well as increase survey administration costs. This volume examines an array of survey research problems and best practices, with the aim of providing readers with ways to increase response rates while controlling costs. Many institutional researchers face additional demands such as administering multiple surveys over time, or administering surveys on sensitive subjects such as student alcohol or drug use. New technologies for survey administration also provide many different options. This volume discusses these issues in terms of the survey research literature as well as the experiences of practitioners in the field. This is the 121st volume of the higher education quarterly journal New Directions for Institutional Research.

Overcoming Survey Research Problems

Overcoming Survey Research Problems PDF Author: Stephen R. Porter
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book Here

Book Description
Paper and electronic surveys of students and faculty have become increasingly popular in higher education research and are now used in almost all facets of assessment and planning. Yet as the demand for survey research has increased, survey response rates have been falling. Low response rates are problematic because they can call into question the validity of the results, as well as increase survey administration costs. This volume examines an array of survey research problems and best practices, with the aim of providing readers with ways to increase response rates while controlling costs. Many institutional researchers face additional demands such as administering multiple surveys over time, or administering surveys on sensitive subjects such as student alcohol or drug use. New technologies for survey administration also provide many different options. This volume discusses these issues in terms of the survey research literature as well as the experiences of practitioners in the field. This is the 121st volume of the higher education quarterly journal New Directions for Institutional Research.

The Problem with Survey Research

The Problem with Survey Research PDF Author: George Beam
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 1412846323
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Problem with Survey Research makes a case against survey research as a primary source of reliable information. George Beam argues that all survey research instruments, all types of asking—including polls, face-to-face interviews, and focus groups—produce unreliable and potentially inaccurate results. Because those who rely on survey research only see answers to questions, it is impossible for them, or anyone else, to evaluate the results. They cannot know if the answers correspond to respondents’ actual behaviors (objective phenomena) or to their true beliefs and opinions (subjective phenomena). Reliable information can only be acquired by observation, experimentation, multiple sources of data, formal model building and testing, document analysis, and comparison. In fifteen chapters divided into six parts—Ubiquity of Survey Research, The Problem, Asking Instruments, Asking Settings, Askers, and Proper Methods and Research Designs—The Problem with Survey Research demonstrates how asking instruments, settings in which asking and answering take place, and survey researchers themselves skew results and thereby make answers unreliable. The last two chapters and appendices examine observation, other methods of data collection and research designs that may produce accurate or correct information, and shows how reliance on survey research can be overcome, and must be.

Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys

Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309272475
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 167

Get Book Here

Book Description
For many household surveys in the United States, responses rates have been steadily declining for at least the past two decades. A similar decline in survey response can be observed in all wealthy countries. Efforts to raise response rates have used such strategies as monetary incentives or repeated attempts to contact sample members and obtain completed interviews, but these strategies increase the costs of surveys. This review addresses the core issues regarding survey nonresponse. It considers why response rates are declining and what that means for the accuracy of survey results. These trends are of particular concern for the social science community, which is heavily invested in obtaining information from household surveys. The evidence to date makes it apparent that current trends in nonresponse, if not arrested, threaten to undermine the potential of household surveys to elicit information that assists in understanding social and economic issues. The trends also threaten to weaken the validity of inferences drawn from estimates based on those surveys. High nonresponse rates create the potential or risk for bias in estimates and affect survey design, data collection, estimation, and analysis. The survey community is painfully aware of these trends and has responded aggressively to these threats. The interview modes employed by surveys in the public and private sectors have proliferated as new technologies and methods have emerged and matured. To the traditional trio of mail, telephone, and face-to-face surveys have been added interactive voice response (IVR), audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI), web surveys, and a number of hybrid methods. Similarly, a growing research agenda has emerged in the past decade or so focused on seeking solutions to various aspects of the problem of survey nonresponse; the potential solutions that have been considered range from better training and deployment of interviewers to more use of incentives, better use of the information collected in the data collection, and increased use of auxiliary information from other sources in survey design and data collection. Nonresponse in Social Science Surveys: A Research Agenda also documents the increased use of information collected in the survey process in nonresponse adjustment.

Basic Elements of Survey Research in Education

Basic Elements of Survey Research in Education PDF Author: Ulemu Luhanga
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1648026044
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 831

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this first book of the series Survey Methods in Educational Research, we have brought together leading authors and scholars in the field to discuss key introductory concepts in the creation, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of survey instruments and their resultant findings. While there are other textbooks that might introduce these concepts adequately well, the authors here have focused on the pragmatic issues that inevitably arise in the development and administration process of survey instruments. Drawing from their rich experiences, the authors present these potential speed bumps or road blocks a survey researcher in education or the social sciences might encounter. Referencing their own work and practice, the authors provide valuable suggestions for dealing with these issues “your advisor never told you about.” And all of the recommendations are aligned with standard protocols and current research on best practices in the field of research methodology. This book is broken into four broad units on creating survey items and instruments, administering surveys, analyzing the data from surveys, and stories of successful administrations modeling the entire research cycle. Each chapter focuses on a different concept in the survey research process, and the authors share their approaches to addressing the issues. These topics include survey item construction, scale development, cognitive interviewing, measuring change with self-report data, translation issues with surveys administered in multiple languages, working with school and program administrators when implementing surveys, a review of current software used in survey research, the use of weights, response styles, assessing validity of results, and effectively communicating your results and findings … and much more. The intended audience of the volume will be practitioners, administrators, teachers as researchers, graduate students, social science and education researchers not experienced in survey research, and students learning program evaluation. In brief, if you are considering doing survey research, this book is meant for you.

The Problem with Survey Research

The Problem with Survey Research PDF Author: George Beam
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351476254
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Problem with Survey Research makes a case against survey research as a primary source of reliable information. George Beam argues that all survey research instruments, all types of asking-including polls, face-to-face interviews, and focus groups-produce unreliable and potentially inaccurate results. Because those who rely on survey research only see answers to questions, it is impossible for them, or anyone else, to evaluate the results. They cannot know if the answers correspond to respondents' actual behaviors (objective phenomena) or to their true beliefs and opinions (subjective phenomena). Reliable information can only be acquired by observation, experimentation, multiple sources of data, formal model building and testing, document analysis, and comparison. In fifteen chapters divided into six parts-Ubiquity of Survey Research, The Problem, Asking Instruments, Asking Settings, Askers, and Proper Methods and Research Designs-The Problem with Survey Research demonstrates how asking instruments, settings in which asking and answering take place, and survey researchers themselves skew results and thereby make answers unreliable. The last two chapters and appendices examine observation, other methods of data collection and research designs that may produce accurate or correct information, and shows how reliance on survey research can be overcome, and must be.

Respondent Centred Surveys

Respondent Centred Surveys PDF Author: Laura Wilson
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1529765056
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Get Book Here

Book Description
Achieve your survey goals by empowering your survey respondents. Too often, surveys are designed for the analyst, rather than the respondent. This book challenges the status quo by putting respondents’ needs at the heart of survey development. It encourages you to stop, listen, and then design to improve response rates and collect high quality data. Drawing on their experience at the UK Office for National Statistics, the authors: Show you how to design better surveys by combining social research and user experience best practice. Equip you with the tools to design inclusive and accessible surveys. Enable you to overcome practical research problems, including managing participant recruitment, and working to any budget. Provide links to helpful web material and further reading as part of the book′s online resources. Promoting a new way to conceptualise and conduct survey design, this book expands your theoretical thinking and shows you, step-by-step, how to put it into practice.

Improving Surveys with Paradata

Improving Surveys with Paradata PDF Author: Frauke Kreuter
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118591631
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explore the practices and cutting-edge research on the new and exciting topic of paradata Paradata are measurements related to the process of collecting survey data. Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process Information is the most accessible and comprehensive contribution to this up-and-coming area in survey methodology. Featuring contributions from leading experts in the field, Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process Information introduces and reviews issues involved in the collection and analysis of paradata. The book presents readers with an overview of the indispensable techniques and new, innovative research on improving survey quality and total survey error. Along with several case studies, topics include: Using paradata to monitor fieldwork activity in face-to-face, telephone, and web surveys Guiding intervention decisions during data collection Analysis of measurement, nonresponse, and coverage error via paradata Providing a practical, encompassing guide to the subject of paradata, the book is aimed at both producers and users of survey data. Improving Surveys with Paradata: Analytic Uses of Process The book also serves as an excellent resource for courses on data collection, survey methodology, and nonresponse and measurement error.

Survey Research for Public Administration

Survey Research for Public Administration PDF Author: David H. Folz
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 0761901531
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
This basic introduction to survey research for public administration is organised around the fundamental stages of the research process - planning, design, implementation, analysis and presentation

Improving Survey Response

Improving Survey Response PDF Author: Ineke A. L. Stoop
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470688328
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
High response rates have traditionally been considered as one of the main indicators of survey quality. Obtaining high response rates is sometimes difficult and expensive, but clearly plays a beneficial role in terms of improving data quality. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that simply boosting response to achieve a higher response rate will not in itself eradicate nonresponse bias. In this book the authors argue that high response rates should not be seen as a goal in themselves, but rather as part of an overall survey quality strategy based on random probability sampling and aimed at minimising nonresponse bias. Key features of Improving Survey Response: A detailed coverage of nonresponse issues, including a unique examination of cross-national survey nonresponse processes and outcomes. A discussion of the potential causes of nonresponse and practical strategies to combat it. A detailed examination of the impact of nonresponse and of techniques for adjusting for it once it has occurred. Examples of best practices and experiments drawn from 25 European countries. Supplemented by the European Social Survey (ESS) websites, containing materials for the measurement and analysis of nonresponse based on detailed country-level response process datasets. The book is designed to help survey researchers and those commissioning surveys by explaining how to prioritise the reduction of nonresponse bias rather than focusing on increasing the overall response rate. It shows substantive researchers how nonresponse can impact on substantive outcomes.

Social Science Research

Social Science Research PDF Author: Anol Bhattacherjee
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781475146127
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.