RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

INTERNET-BASED SURVEYS 227
packages are discussed at http://www.tucows.com/,
which lists and reviews a range of packages, while
http://www.my3q.com/misc/register/register.phtml
provides free online survey software.
For presentational matters Dillman and his
colleagues (1998a; 1999) make the point that
in a paper-based survey the eyes and the hands are
focused on the same area, while in a web-based
survey the eyes are focused on the screen while
the hands are either on the keyboard or on the
mouse, and so completion is more difficult. This
is one reason to avoid asking respondents to type
in many responses to open-ended questions, and
replacing these with radio buttons or clicking on a
mouse that automatically inserts a tick into a box
(Witte et al.1999:139).Further,somerespondents
may have less developed computer skills than
others. They suggest a mixed mode of operation
(paper-based together with web-based versions of
the same questionnaire). The researchers also
found that ‘check-all-that-apply’ lists of factors
to be addressed had questionable reliability, as
respondents would tend to complete those items
at the top of the list and ignore the remainder.
Hence they recommend avoiding the use of checkall-that-apply
questions in a web-based survey.
Similarly they advocate keeping the introduction
to the questionnaire short (no more than one
screen), informative (e.g. of how to move on) and
avoiding giving a long list of instructions. Further,
as the first question in a survey tends to raise in
respondents’ minds a particular mind-set, care is
needed on setting the first question, to entice participants
and not to put them off participating.
(e.g. not too difficult, not too easy, interesting,
straightforward to complete, avoiding drop-down
boxes and scrolling). Dillman et al. (1998a; 1998b;
1999) make specific recommendations about the
layout of the screen, for example keeping the response
categories close to the question for ease
of following, using features like brightness, large
fonts and spacing for clarity in the early parts of
the survey. They also suggest following the natural
movement of the eyes from the top left (the most
important part of the screen, hence the part in
which the question is located) to the bottom right
quadrants of the screen (the least important part of
the screen, which might contain the researcher’s
logo). They comment that the natural movement
of the eye is to read prose unevenly, with the risk of
missing critical words, and that this is particularly
true on long lines, hence they advocate keeping
lines and sentences short (e.g. by inserting a hard
break in the text or to use table-editing features,
locating the text in a table frame). Taking this
further, they also advocate the use of some marker
to indicate to the respondent where he or she has
reached in the questionnaire (e.g. a progress bar
or a table that indicates what proportion of the
questionnaire has been completed so far).
Respondents may not be familiar with webbased
questionnaires, e.g. with radio buttons, scroll
bars, the use of the mouse, the use of drop-down
menus, where to insert open-ended responses, and
the survey designer must not overestimate the
capability of the respondent to use the software,
though Roztocki and Lahri (2002) suggest that
there is no relationship between perceived level
of computer literacy and preference for webbased
surveys. Indeed their use may have to
be explained in the survey itself. Dillman et al.
(1999) suggest that the problem of differential
expertise in computer usage can be addressed in
three ways:
having the instructions for how to complete
the item next to the item itself (not all placed
together at the start of the questionnaire)
asking the respondents at the beginning
about their level of computer expertise,
and, if they are more expert, offering them
the questionnaire with certain instructions
omitted and, if they are less experienced,
directing them to instructions and further
assistance
having a ‘floating window’ that accompanies
each screen and which can be maximized for
further instructions.
Some web-based surveys prevent respondents
from proceeding until they have completed all
the items on the screen in question. While
this might ensure coverage, it can also anger
respondents – such that they give up and abandon
the survey – or prevent them from having a
Chapter 10