Volume Two - Academic Conferences

4. Methodology
Adriana Schiopoiu Burlea et al.
This study tests the four hypotheses using data obtained with the help of an email questionnaire sent
to a multi-stage random sample of EDU-Antreprenor students. The data were collected from January
2011 until April 2011.
A total of 367 out of 458 students returned a usable questionnaire (~80.13%).
As required by research ethics procedures, the surveys were voluntary and students were given the
opportunity to remain anonymous or to mention their identity.
The processing of the questionnaires was done with SPSS 16.0.
The respondents were asked to indicate their opinion related to the use of the eLearning platform,
using a five-point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). A rating of 1
represented low satisfaction, while a rating of 5 represented high satisfaction.
Of the 458 questionnaires distributed, 367 completed and usable questionnaires were returned,
representing a response rate of 80.1%.
Table 1 lists a summary of the response rate and demographic information for the respondents in
2009 and 2010. The effective response rate was 80.14% in 2009, and 80.50% in 2010. A range of
demographic information was available for the overall respondents, as well as collected part of the
survey, including gender and age range. This permitted a comparison between the respondent
sample and the overall staff population based on these demographic dimensions, as presented in
Table 1.
Table1: Basic characteristics of respondents (n = 367)
Basic characteristics Frequency Percentage
2009 2010 2009 2010
Gender
Male 64 61 37 31
Female 109 133 63 69
Total 173 194 100 100
Age range
20-24 45 51 26 26
25-29 58 41 34 21
30-34 31 32 18 16
35-39 19 30 11 15
40-44 12 26 7 14
45-49 6 9 3 5
50 + years 2 5 1 3
Total 173 194 100 100
Table 2 provides a summary of the response rate of beginner and advanced students. This permitted
a comparison between the two student categories.
Table 2: Response rates
User level Response rate (%)
Beginners - 135 respondents 79.88%
Advanced – 232 respondents 86.57 %
Although the obtained response rates were comparatively high, they were not unexpected for an
online voluntary survey and the generally good match between the sample and population
demographic characteristics and the relatively large absolute numbers of respondents, for both
beginner and advanced students in 2009 and in 2010. It suggests that we can have some confidence
in drawing more general inferences from the respondent data.
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