Successful Online Surveys Presenters Kim Perkins, Timothy C. Lisk, & Justin C. Mary Discussant Dale E. Berger Claremont Graduate University WPA 2010, Cancun, Mexico

Survey Survivor: How NOT to get Voted Off the Island Kim Perkins & Timothy C. Lisk Claremont Graduate University WPA 2010, Cancun

 Intro  Comparison of Services  Free  Paid  Case-by-case  Tribal Council  Tips & Resources

 Strengths  Easy to administer  No data entry!  Bias-free random assignment  Weaknesses  Take longer to create  Sample issues  Who owns the data?  Inconsistent formatting  Features change all the time

 Skip logic & branching  Earlier responses determine later items  IF yes THAN item #4  Randomization  Question, answer, page  Reduces order effects  Not random assignment  IP address  Similar to a cell phone number  Identifies one computer at one point in time

 Best for Newbies: SurveyGizmo  Unlimited surveys / questions  250 responses per month  Best for Experts: LimeSurvey  Local or remote hosting  All features available

 “Surveys for Dummies”  Or at least people who would rather not think about this too much  Free is useless, but $200/yr:  “One-click” to import items straight from Word  Automatic crosstabs and charts  Real-time widgets for web page placement  $899/yr – “Expert team” will write your survey

 Very common  Good real-time data display  Useful to display data to stakeholders  $200/year package is cheaper than $19.95 monthly, with no limits on # of responses

 Easy and powerful  Skip logic & piping ($$$)  “Respondent Anonymity Assurance” ($$$)  IRB friendly  No longer offer academic institution licensing

 Open source with high-end features  Can download entire package to your own site & use it free  Default: Does not pick up IP addresses  Assessments  Tokens for matching participants in pre-post design  Pay by the response as you go  Packages of $.04 to $.10 per response  Even free accounts can use advanced features  Clunky design interface  Perplexing web-developer logic & vocabulary  Response set = Label set  Skip logic = Conditions  Matrix-style questions = Answers

 Anonymous IP / SSL encryption ($$$)  Solution? Free student account!  All features unlocked  No formal tech support .edu addresses only  GIS summary  Random assignment  A/B branching  Ability to combine surveys

 $25/mo  IRB-friendly  SSL encryption  Account purged 14 days after deactivation  Super Uptight Critique  Company still collects IP addresses  Ultimately, data is password secured “However, should interception of encrypted data occur, that data could not be decoded without the unique encryption key that is held only by PsychData.”

 Defend the providers!  Raise your hand when your favorite provider is called.

SurveyGizmo!  Strengths  Easy to use  Most key features available  Weaknesses  Basic logic & branching  IP address tracking Runner-up: LimeSurvey

 URL shorteners  Random assignment  Branching / logic maps  “Hidden” help files  IRB application help

 Comparison of Services  Free  Paid  Case-by-case  SurveyGizmo  Tips & Resources