National Student Survey - Essay Example

The qualitative research involves only a small number of respondents, statistical significances and the confidence levels are usually not performed on the raw data for this type of research. The quantitative research mostly uses a random sample and usually involves a large number of respondents. This type of research is undertaken to draw conclusion about the whole population. (Smith, 2000) The advent of the internet and the falling costs of personal computers have expanded the realms of possibilities for the researcher in their choice of research techniques, and in particular, methods for conducting research surveys.

(Schonlau, Fricher et al. 2001). It wasn't very long ago that online surveys weren't considered an effective means of data collection and were seen with suspicion within the marketing research community, mainly, because the online population was not considered sufficiently representative of the population at large. Perceptions have changed overtime with the increase in internet penetration, online research has now become increasingly prominent and is considered as effective as other mail surveys, and interviews (face-to-face and telephone interviews).

Advocates of online survey argue that they have distinct advantages over traditional data collection methods. The greatest strengths of internet surveys are the potential to colle. The advantages they offer are:- Online surveys consume less time than traditional methods which can take a long time to implement due to separate and distinct phases of design, data collection, coding and analysis.- Incur less cost and are cheaper to conduct as it has no outgoing or return postage and other administration costs- Easier to conduct- The output produced is comparable in quality to other data collection techniques such as postal surveys etc - It is possible to target a diverse range of potential respondents in terms of geography and industry background.

- The sample size can be kept moderately large to take advantage of the lower marginal cost per respondent.- Can be conducted with a convenience sample where the respondents themselves select themselves into the survey- Cost per response decreases with the increase in sample size, so a large sample size can be selected to ensure that the sample is representative of the population- Access to high-income, high-tech, professionals. These and other business people are normally difficult to identify and reach via other methodologies.

The greatest strengths of internet surveys are the potential to collect a large amount of data in a relatively short amount of time, and the elimination of the necessity for researchers to enter or process the data. Electronic survey content results may be no different than postal survey content results, yet provide strong advantages of speedy distribution and response cycles [Yun & Trumbo, 2005; Swoboda, et al., 2001]Analysis and Discussion Every survey methodology has its negatives and online surveys are no different.

There are problems associated with online surveys that go beyond