programming

Friday, August 29th

Example: A Specialized Online Survey

Situation

A professor of Marketing at the University of Alabama is researching ways to facilitate communication and cooperation among emergency response organizations (Police, Fire, ambulance, etc).

The Problem

The good doctor was planning to do a survey by mail, but was discouraged by the typical response rates of mass mailings (normally in the range of 10%). Having people fill out a paper survey also created additional challenges: people would be writing responses by hand which can be hard to read, someone would have to read the responses and manually enter the data into the computer, and the survey would have to be printed, stuffed into envelopes and mailed which is time consuming and not cheap.

Enter the Programmer

She knew that putting the survey online would solve many problems, and most likely increase the number of responses. What she couldn't do was the programming. After she finalized the survey on paper, we took that and her contact list and went to work. We designed a database to store the survey responses and basic contact information for each potential respondent. From there we setup restricted access to the survey so only authorized people could take it. Having the survey online also allowed her to ask different questions based on particular answers given by the respondents. For her to be able to analyze the data, we created a page on the site that put all of the completed responses in spreadsheet form for easy loading into Excel. All she has to do is download a file. And if she wants more responses, all she has to do is add people to the contact list and send them an email.

Summary

The advantages of putting surveys online are too numerous to list in toto, so we'll stick to the high points. First, and probably most important, is data integrity. Storing exactly what a respondent types eliminates a person having to read and enter what someone wrote, a common practice in a myriad of situations and the cause of many errors. There is also the ability to easily fix errors. If the survey is mailed and you notice a typo or confusing statement, it's difficult if not impossible to fix. However, on the Internet it's simple. Third, the time and cost savings are immense. There is time and money saved from not having to print, stuff and mail the surveys, read and enter the responses, and format the data for analysis. Finally, it is reusable. The survey is always there and ready to be used, with more responses just an e-mail away.


		Friday, August 29th

	Example: A Specialized Online Survey Situation A professor of Marketing at the University of Alabama is researching ways to facilitate communication and cooperation among emergency response organizations (Police, Fire, ambulance, etc). The Problem The good doctor was planning to do a survey by mail, but was discouraged by the typical response rates of mass mailings (normally in the range of 10%). Having people fill out a paper survey also created additional challenges: people would be writing responses by hand which can be hard to read, someone would have to read the responses and manually enter the data into the computer, and the survey would have to be printed, stuffed into envelopes and mailed which is time consuming and not cheap. Enter the Programmer She knew that putting the survey online would solve many problems, and most likely increase the number of responses. What she couldn't do was the programming. After she finalized the survey on paper, we took that and her contact list and went to work. We designed a database to store the survey responses and basic contact information for each potential respondent. From there we setup restricted access to the survey so only authorized people could take it. Having the survey online also allowed her to ask different questions based on particular answers given by the respondents. For her to be able to analyze the data, we created a page on the site that put all of the completed responses in spreadsheet form for easy loading into Excel. All she has to do is download a file. And if she wants more responses, all she has to do is add people to the contact list and send them an email. Summary The advantages of putting surveys online are too numerous to list in toto, so we'll stick to the high points. First, and probably most important, is data integrity. Storing exactly what a respondent types eliminates a person having to read and enter what someone wrote, a common practice in a myriad of situations and the cause of many errors. There is also the ability to easily fix errors. If the survey is mailed and you notice a typo or confusing statement, it's difficult if not impossible to fix. However, on the Internet it's simple. Third, the time and cost savings are immense. There is time and money saved from not having to print, stuff and mail the surveys, read and enter the responses, and format the data for analysis. Finally, it is reusable. The survey is always there and ready to be used, with more responses just an e-mail away.


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