Surveys

Description:
Web-based, self-administered questionnaires, where the website shows a list of questions which users answer and submit their responses online. They can be used to research views, attitudes and experiences of participants either through a sampled approach or through an open invitation to respond. Surveys are commonly implemented around a number of close-ended questions, typically with ordered response categories, and some open-ended questions. As such a survey is a structured approach to eliciting responses to a range of pre-identified options, which together with any responses to open-ended questions, are generally not disclosed to other participants except as statistical totals. Website surveys can be designed to allow elaborate skip patterns through questions, pop-up instructions per question, drop down boxes providing an extensive list of alternative answers, and even alternative designs and plans to choose from.

eParticipation areas:

• Campaigning
• Community building / Collaborative Environments
• Consultation
• Electioneering
• Mediation
• Polling
• Spatial planning

Stage policy cycle: Appropriate stages are (1) agenda setting (2) policy formulation, and (5) policy evaluation.


Specials:
A user’s answers are generally not disclosed to others except as statistical totals. (But providers can analyse individual answers of a small sample if they use log files.) Some online survey software includes additional features for participants, for example, a ‘progress bar’ and a facility ‘to stop and save’ so that participants can complete the survey at a later time. In some tools it is possible to jump from one question to another, to distinct among pages, or the transfer into statistical software such as SPSS, and the avoidance to repeat answers. Advantages of surveys are that they collect quantifiable data that is easy to analyse and understand.


Channel:
PC-based

Technology:

• Web application

Evaluation:
Through analysis of the answers received and the total number of responses.

Additions:
www.surveymonkey.com www.snapsurveys.com/software/softwareprof.shtml