Numeracy & Quantitative Methods Laura Lake

Interviews can be conducted by telephone rather than face- to-face. Structured interviewing: face-to-face or telephone? Both are valid methods of collecting survey data from respondents with their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. Telephone Interviewing

Resources: cost and time in comparison to face-to-face interviewing Particularly with geographically dispersed respondents / accessing geographically remote respondents. Potential to avoid the need for cluster sampling (often needed with field interviewing to control interviewer field costs). Administration: interviewing from a central telephone unit potentially lends itself to careful supervision and control Potentially implications for standarisation and reliability. Advantages: Resources & Administration

Interviewer effect: telephone interviewing can mitigating against: Interviewer characteristics Social desirability bias – tendency to answer questions in a way that is believed to be socially acceptable and desirable. Advantages: Impact of Interviewers

Access: meeting the needs of the sample of people responding to the survey appropriateness for people with hearing difficulties accessing those without telephones, ex-directory or mobile only households no complete list of domestic telephone numbers implications for sampling sampling from public directories potentially weighted. Disadvantages: Access & Completion

Survey Topics & Anonymity When exploring particularly sensitive topics the face-to- face method may be a superior method. Telephone surveys are neither anonymous (as with self-completion) nor are they personal in the sense of a face-to-face interview. So, better or worse than with face-to-face? Depends on the topic but the some degree of anonymity means potentially good with sensitive topics. How to know? Explore with a pilot. Disadvantages: Without Face-to-Face Interviewers

Visual Cues Interviewers cannot work with observed or visual cues from respondents. Disadvantages: Without Face-to-Face Interviewers

Question types/ formats Careful consideration needs to be given to the question type and suitability for telephone interviewing. Ranking, matrix or multiple response are difficult to administer over the telephone. Disadvantages: Format

Questionnaire length Lengthy telephone interviews questionnaire generally not recommended. Face-to-face can give more options with time scales. Quality of data Potentially not as good as with face-to-face interviewing. Disadvantages: Format

Response rates can be low when approached by cold telephone calling Non-contacts and refusals Disadvantages: Response Rate

Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods. 3 rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. David, M. and Sutton, C. (2004) Social Research :The Basics. London: Sage. ESRC Survey Measurement Programme. Online: available from Survey Resource Network Oppenheim, A. (2000) Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. London: Continuum References

This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.Learning from WOeRk This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license ( The resource, where specified below, contains other 3 rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below: 1.The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. 2.The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license. Author Laura Lake InstituteUniversity of Plymouth Title Numeracy & Quantitative Methods Management & Data Collection: Structured Interview – telephone Description Key issues in developing structured interviewing for surveys using telephone survey administration methods. Date Created March Educational Level Level 5 Keywords UKOER LFWOERK UOPCPDRM Learning from Woerk WBL Work Based Learning CPD Continuous Professional Development Telephone interviewing, face-to-face interviewing, social desirability bias, visual cues, Creative Commons License Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project ©University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved