Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

Table 10.1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Various Survey Methods.
Dimension Computer Paper PDA Telephone Web-Based
Clerical Generally less clerical More clerical effort Much like computer Between computers One of the easiest of
work than paper due required than any surveys, this form and paper forms as all as the responses
to the automatic other form due to can remove a lot the responses over are collected and
recording through the individual atten- of the clerical require- the phone can be sorted as they
computer programs tion needed for every ments, due to its recorded by hand, come in
survey electronic format or on computer
Pre-Field Computer surveys can This is an important Pre-field is important Testing here is impor- Somewhat important
Completion allow changes to the step in a paper survey due to the special tant, but not nearly so here, but having a
survey design after as the copying require- program that is much as other forms. competent Webpre-field,
as long as ments, time & expense written for the Interviewers can change programmer would
a specific computer are not something PDA format questions or procedure alleviate some
program has been that be incurred can rather simply. requirements
written repeatedly
Programming Requirements for pro- Not really applicable, A specific program There is some program- Again, a competent
gramming here can can easily be avoided for the PDA survey ming expense based on Web programmer
be small or large. It must be written and how the responses are would be needed for
depends on the amount given to each PDA recorded. If it is via this format to work
of special software user. This can be computer, it can be well; otherwise, data
needed for the survey. costly. expensive. could be lost
Skips Can be handled easily Can become confusing Limited by the tech- Limited by the skill The Web-based
for the survey partici- nology of the PDA; and training of the survey format can
pant and the data however, many new interviewer. Also handle the skips
coder PDAs are very depends on the well, but the interadvanced
intelligence of the viewee must be able
interviewee. to easily understand
the progression