Research methodology

The Internet as a medium for research

• Introduction
• Examples of online research
• Online questionnaires
• Miscellaneous resources

Introduction

The expansion of the Internet over the past decade has provided the researcher with a range of new opportunities for finding information, networking, conducting research, and disseminating research results. 

Through the use of tools such as online focus groups, electronic mail, and online questionnaires, the Internet opens up new possibilities for conducting research. It offers, for example

• shorter timeframes for collecting and recording data: e-mail messages can be saved and analyzed in qualitative data packages, for example, while online surveys can be captured directly into a database 
• the possibility of conducting interviews and focus groups by e-mail, with related savings in costs and time
• new "communities" to serve as the object of social scientific enquiry
• opportunities for including mixed multiple media in questionnaires

On the other hand, these opportunities also raise new challenges for the researcher, such as

• problems of sampling
• the ethics of conducting research into online communities
• physical access and skills required to use the technologies involved
• accuracy and reliability of information obtained from online sources
• the changed chronology of interaction resulting from asynchronous communication

Social Science Computer Review, published by Sage, is a useful starting point for exploring the methodologies of online survey research.

Examples of online research

The following are three examples of different ways in which researchers have used the Internet as a medium for conducting research:

National Geographic Survey 2000
For this survey, interactive survey instruments were used to study the effects of location and mobility on values and cultural tastes. Extensive use was made of public relations and community outreach to publicize the survey; over a two-month data collection period 80 012 self-selected participants from 178 countries started the questionnaire, of whom 54 937 completed it. Questions were in some measure dynamically generated, with respondents automatically redirected to appropriate sections based on their answers to previous questions.

Apart from its primary aim, this survey was simultaneously an experiment in online survey methodology, and a number of academic papers on the research methodology were written as a result. A public use version of the dataset is available.

Main survey site
http://survey2000.nationalgeographic.com/

Additional papers
http://survey2000.nationalgeographic.com/links.html

See also Witte, JC, Amoroso, M, and Howard, PEN. 2000. "Methods and Representation in Internet-Based Survey Tools - Mobility, Community, and Cultural Identity in Survey2000." Social Science Computer Review Vol. 18 No. 2, Summer 2000.

The Anatomy of Practice in the Use of Mailing Lists: a Case Study (Martyn Wild)
In this study Martyn Wild of Edith Cowan University in Australia looks at the form and content of communication on two educational listservers.

"The study found that there is a possibility in the use of mailing lists, to create vital, energetic and occasional communities for professional development activities, building curriculum and information resource libraries and facilitating informal communicative networks, serving the social, professional and personal needs of teachers. The type of lists investigated here were unmoderated, self serving and self censoring, and they appeared to work well for a majority of the list membership. Topics of postings and the willingness to engage them fluctuated as the list communities matured. In particular, some dialogue displayed elements of a critical dimension - a necessary precursor to developing serious, reflective, engagement with practices, theory and research that should accompany any professional development process."

Wild, M. 1999. "The Anatomy of Practice in the Use of Mailing Lists: a Case Study." Australian Journal of Educational Technology. 15(2), 117-135.
http://cleo.murdoch.edu.au/ajet/ajet15/wild.html

Online Focus Groups: Electronic Discussions for Research (Roger Rezabek)
"As part of a dissertation research project, an online focus group was created in order to help determine questions and issues to be asked in depth interviews of distance learning students about their motives, barriers and enablers in their decision to enroll in adult distance learning courses. The focus group used asynchronous discussion through a listserve for approximately two and a half months, and identified several key issues that were explored in the depth interviews."
http://qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-00/1-00rezabek-e.htm

Online questionnaires

While some of the characteristics of online survey research overlap with those of traditional survey research, there are also differences. Among the potential advantages of online questionnaires are low-cost delivery and return; wide potential coverage; ease of completion, submission and data capture; appropriateness to particular - not all - populations; high respondent acceptance for some groups; and even novelty.

Potential difficulties include the paucity of methodological literature; appropriateness to research aims and target population; technical difficulties; sampling and response rates. 

A growing number of commercial and free (advertising-driven) concerns offer access to software for taking questionnaires online; not all are suitable for academic use. Some links to general resources on taking questionnaires online follow; see also the Yenza! section on developing web databases for an overview of some of the technical issues involved.

Miscellaneous resources

Using E-Mail as a Research Tool (Neil Selwyn and Kate Robson, University of Wales, Cardiff)
This article, published in Social Research Update, looks at methodological considerations, e-mail questionnaires, and electronic interviewing.
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU21.html

The Internet as a Medium for Qualitative Research (Patsy Clarke, University of Natal)
Presentation at Web 2000 Conference, RAU, September 2000
http://www.und.ac.za/users/clarke/web2000/pc.pdf
Powerpoint slides from presentation for NRF, February 2000.
http://www.nrf.ac.za/yenza/vista/nrf_11feb/index.htm

Casting the Net: Surveying an Internet Population
Article by Christine Smith in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (June 1997).
http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/vol3/issue1/smith.html

Articles on sampling by Nigel Bradley (University of Westminster)