conducting email questionnaires

Email questionnaires | Simon Mumford | May 5th, 2003

Hi, I wonder if anyone has had any experience with email questionnaires, as I am planning to use these to get some data. I was wondering about the technicalities. Do you send the questionnaire as an attachment? If so, does this have to be downloaded, answered and re-attached by the recipient, and if so would this put people off answering? Would it be better just to email questions and ask the respondents to type their answers straight into the body of the email? Has anyone used these and with how much success? I would be grateful for any advice on this matter.

Simon
Turkey

Re: Email questionnaires | Danyal Freeman | May 6th, 2003

Simon,

I did some research using e-mail questionnaires last year and I'd mention the following.To aim for a good return rate, keep your questionnaire as short, unambiguous and easy to reply to as possible. The IIC module units 5-6 covers designing questionnaires. Generally speaking though, expect a rate or return of 10% or less.

Danyal

Re: Email Questionnaires | Raymond Sheehan | May 6th, 2003

I agree with Danyal about keeping it short, and checking out the IIC module on devising questionnaires; also check the examples there of good effective vs. bad ones.

I think it's good to give the respondents' some kind of reason, or sense of purpose, for filling in your questionnaire. In one I just completed, I was asked to reflect on a topic I'm interested in and made to feel that my replies might be valued in the other person's research. I think the low response rate to questionnaires may be partly based on this motivating element being missing.

The questionnaire I completed yesterday arrived as an attachment. I opened it, saved it under another name (a name suggested by the author so that when you receive replies you can group them neatly in your email folder under 'view by topic' for example). It is very important for the respondent to open the attachment and save it; otherwise the respondents' replies may not be saved if they simply open your questionnaire attachment, type merrily away and close it. The open-ended questions were followed by boxes for my replies, and the boxes expanded automatically as I wrote. The later part of the questionnaire consisted of boxes where I typed x' to denote areas of agreement (much easier than ticking/checking).

Raymond
UAE

Re: Email questionnaires | Jerry Talandis Jr. | May 6th, 2003

Hi Simon,

I think it would be easier just to put the questions in the body of the email. That way all people have to do to answer it would be to hit the reply button, which is a very common behavior. Keep it easy and simple, I would think.

I've not done a questionnaire by email, but I have answered a few. I'm planning on doing one for my DE assignment sometime later this year.

Good luck,

Jerry

Web-based questionnaires | Keith Richards | May 8th, 2003

This topic came up recently, so I thought you might be interested in the following, which has just been published:

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

VOL 6; PART 2; 2003
ISSN 1364-5579
Pp. 167-180

Conducting research using web-based questionnaires: practical, methodological, and ethical considerations, Fox, J.; Murray, C.; Warm, A.

Cheers

Keith

Email questionnaires | Simon Mumford | May 9th, 2003

Thanks for all the advice. I have sent the questionnaire off and am keeping my fingers crossed. It is for my Diss, which is researching the effect of a series of workshops on teachers' practice. I wonder if anyone has done anything similar? I am also evaluating the programme in terms of meeting teachers' needs.

Simon
Turkey