2. Online Surveys: Approach, Issues and Challenges Mohini Singh PhD School of BIT

3. Online Surveys Supported by technology (Internet) Quick Convenient (24*7) Reach – respondents at greater distances Cost savings – postage and printing Responses (submitted forms) Downloaded to a database Portable -Can be transferred across to statistical packages for analysis

4. Questionnaire HTML form Sections - pages Programmed so that the respondents cannot proceed unless they have provided a response to each question Can include text boxes, drop down lists and radio buttons for responses Include a tracking number For respondents to continue at a later time/day For researchers to identify the responses

5. How to Setup Online Surveys Off the shelf software Professional Quest$1540 StatpacUS$495 Host of others Limitations Limited statistical analysis ability of the off the shelf packages Database issues Consultants$55,000 High costs Programmers

6. E-Business Evaluation Project VRI Funding $12,000 HTML forms developed by a Computer Science student$4,000 Programmed in HTML, supported by PHP and MYSQL Questionnaire – sections (pages), tracking number, instructions, easy to read, colour (pleasant & professional) Hosted on RMIT server, supported by ITS $90 for 3 months

7. Research Industry database purchased via RMIT Library Sent an email to 1,300 organisations Emails bounced back = 400 Auto responses = 15 Company policy not to respond to surveys = 15

8. Research cont… Responses in 7 days = 17 Reminder email in 2 weeks Responses = 37

9. Other responses “My time is valuable - $75 per hour. Please don’t waste it unless you can pay for it”... “Sorry I can receive your email, but I can’t access the website. In order to do that, we need to use a separate machine which is dedicated for the Internet use. Sorry I can’t help you.”…

10. Other Responses cont… “If you wish us to participate in a survey either put it in your email or attach it. We do not chase around strange websites” “We do not wish to participate, kind regards” “Thank you but we do not wish to participate. Please remove us from your mailing list/database.”

11. Alternative Postal questionnaire survey - hard copies Outcome Online responses increased to 97 Returned hard copies = 115 Analysis Approx 23% responses

12. Issues Benefits - useful research tool Database – out of date, expensive for accurate information ‘Clicks’ – new & unproven, a lack of trust, not utilised to its full potential

13. Challenges Population – technology savvy people will use it, others are reluctant Getting respondents to accept online questionnaires (first experience, unable to follow instructions, difficult to share information) New medium – took longer than expected to set it up For this project – implications for e-business a major concern

14. Conclusion In this case ‘paper and online forms’ were used to complete the research It is assumed that online research will work well with focus groups with technology savvy people for quick and short responses (market survey)