Saturday, January 24, 2009
Amanda's DQ Week 3
Our textbook, Public Opinion, explains the three most common methods for getting survey data from respondents which are in person, through the mail, or by telephone. Each method has its pros and cons. Pick an issue that you could ask NDSU students about which would relate to NDSU. Explain what the issue is, possible questions you may ask, and which method would give you the best survey data. Then, explain why you chose that method and what makes it better then the other two methods for the survey data you are trying to obtain.
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The issue I would pick is weather or not NDSU needs a new library.
ReplyDeleteA school like NDSU (sports division one school), finally remodled the Addmission office, but the library is also an important place for our students.
If people visited other universities they will know how small NDSU library is and limited resource we have (not open 24 hours, no unlimited printing)
The questions I might ask 1) Should NDSU get founds for a new library on campus?
2)Should the library add more study areas?
3)Should the library have a card access system for students after midnight?
I would use the through telephone survey for this issue because from the book, it is the most fast and flexible way of collecting the data and it is also convenient for the interviewers.
The mail survey is cheap but not many people would take the time to do the survey and send it back, if the email was concidered mail surveys then I would have chosen this method just because stduents will check their email mostly everyday.
In person interview just takes too long and you will need to set up dates for the interviwers which is lest convient so people might not want to take the time to do so.
I would ask students if they believe there should be a single fee for parking included in fees so students could park anywhere at anytime or if they prefer the choice to purchase a parking permit. I would ask the questions like 1.Would you prefer parking on campus to be included in student fees?
ReplyDelete2. Do you currently choose to purchase a parking pass?
3. How much would you be willing to pay for a yearly parking fee?
I would use the telephone survey for this question because it is not a serious enough issue to pay the costs of an in person interview. The telephone survey is the most cost efficient option.
I would not choose a mail survey because students do not like to take time to fill out extra surveys that they are not required. This option would most likely have a very low reply rate.
Telephone surveys work great for college students because they are fast and flexible, which most students prefer.
My question to NDSU campus is: "Should people who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon be allowed to carry on NDSU campus?" Currently NDSU has a "no weapons" policy whether they are safely locked up in a case or on your hip. This means that citizens that are legal to carry in the general public cannot carry on NDSU grounds. With campus shootings on the rise, it may be necessary to take a second look at the issue.
ReplyDeleteGiven the three choices I have, I would choose an interview system. Looking at NDSU's population, it would not be too hard to sit down with a representative amount of people to get the general opinion of the campus.
It would definitely take a sizeable amount of time to complete this though. Appointments would have to be made and it would take time to convince people to take time out of their day to answer some questions.
Being that this is a controversial topic, it would benefit the research to hear the opinions in person rather than the answers from a yes or no question. It seems that if people have to justify their answer they are more likely to answer truthfully as compared to what everyone else is saying. For that reason, telephone and mail would not be the obvious choice.
-Michael
I think I would ask the students at NDSU whether they are comfortable with grad students lecturing in most of their classes, or if having someone a little more qualified would make a difference.
ReplyDeletePossible questions I may ask are:
1) How many classes are you taking that are taught by a grad student?
2) Do you feel you are getting a quality education?
3) What do grad students have to offer that doctors may not? and vice versa
Out of all the techniques listed in the book, I would probably prefer an In-Person Interview. I think it helps to get the raw opinions of the interviewee(s) rather than calling and putting them on the spot while they’re with the friends/family. A mailed out interview seems sort of impersonal. There’s always a risk of the survey getting lost in the mail, and might make the interviewee wonder if their opinion really matters.
I would also consider sending out a mass e-mail asking students to fill out if they feel this a pertinent issue. Sometimes people can express their ideas better if they have a chance to sit down, interpret the questions, and form their own responses.
The question I would ask NDSU students would be if there should be a set age on weather you have to live in the dorms or not. As of right now the age to live off campus is 19. If a student is under this age they are expected to live in the dorms on campus.
ReplyDeleteQuestions I would ask would be:
1) Should there be a set age to live off campus?
2) Does dorm life strengthen a freshman's experience?
3) Did you live in the dorms your freshman year?
4) If so, how did it better or worsen your college experience?
The method of surveying I would use would be e-mail. By using this method a mass audience could be reached. Many people use e-mail more than actual mail these days because it is almost instant gratification compared to letter mail. People would be more apt to respond to an email rather than a letter in the mail.
Since e-mail really was not an option, my other choice would be by phone. Although many people do not use their home phones as much as cellular phones, this method would be the quickest and easiest way to get feedback.
Survey by phone would be better than mail or in person because it is much quicker. Instead of waiting for mass amounts of letters to come back and instead of interviewing one person at a time in person, a phone call would be much easier to get information back.
The question that I would ask NDSU students would be if student fees should go towards funding for a new basketball arena next to the Fargo Dome. Currently the NDSU Athletic Department is trying to come up with funds to construct a $30 Million facility for the Bison basketball teams.
ReplyDeleteThe questions I would ask are:
1)Are you a fan of Bison sports?
2)Do you believe in student funding for athletic programs?
3)Would you attend more games if the new arena was constructed?
4)Should the arena be privately funded?
The type of survey that I would choose would be interviewing. I would just sit in the union and poll random students as they walk buy. This way I would be able to get a good sample of the student population.
Overall an interview would be the best source to find out public opinion. I would be able to read the nonverbal and verbal messages. By reading both messages I would be able to truly find out if the students are being truthful.
In the past I have surveyed NDSU students on whether or not they listen to the student radio station, KNDS 96.3 FM. I choose to do in person surveys because the students are captive and more likely to respond. It’s getting harder to do phone surveys because of the decrease in landlines due to the increase in cell phones, and mail surveys are not cost effective for student organizations.
ReplyDeleteThe surveys are distributed during multiple Comm. 110 classes because the students are diversified through age, sex, and major; this improves the overall accuracy. The questions asked are similar to the following:
§ What is your year in school? (Fr. Sp. Jr. Sr. Sr.2)
§ Gender (M/F)
§ What is your major?
§ Have you heard of KNDS 96.3?
o If so, how?
§ How often do you listen to KNDS 96.3?
§ Please leave any feedback or suggestions you may have for the station/programming
These questions allow for me to pinpoint any trends between listenership and gender or major, in addition to showing any progress as people move up in class. The last time I did a survey I was able to find that 50% of the student population had heard of the station and of that 50%, 50% (25% of the total surveyed) listened on a regular basis. Not only were we able to find that for every two people that find out about the station, one will listen on a regular basis; but the comments also allowed us to tailor any marketing towards the average student.
An issue that I think would be interesting to ask NDSU students about is the issue of NDSU having a low percentage of female professors compared to male professors on campus that was brought up in an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. I think the best possible method for this issue would be a focus group, or interviewing personally.
ReplyDeleteI think focus groups would be the best option because one would really be able to get a real understanding of the true feelings from students about this issue and not just typical yes/no answers from telephone or mail surveys. Focus groups give participants the opportunity to really describe in detail their thoughts toward the specific issue.
Questions that you could begin asking for this issue are:
1. Did you every know this was an issue on campus?
2. Now that you do you, what are your thoughts on this particular issue?
3. Do you think this issue has been exaggerated or is truly a real problem for NDSU?
My question to NDSU would be about parking on campus. I know many people on campus are frustrated about having to pay for a parking pass that is a mile from where their classes are held. So I would survey the campus to see if they would like to see a parking structure built somewhere near middle of campus.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this survey would be most effective if questions were asked in person.
Questions I would ask:
Have you purchased a parking pass this school year?
If so, is your parking pass located near most of your classes?
Would you like to see some improvements made to the parking on NDSU's campus?
Would you support having a parking structure built near the center of campus?
I'd choose this method because I feel people on campus would be happy to discuss their opinions on this matter. I have seen the frustration in regards to the lack of available parking on campus, and feel that people would be willing to say how they really feel. I would probably ask these questions in the Union because people from all departments on campus come through the Union in a given day and I feel it would give a good representation of how campus views this issue. I suppose conducting a survey through email rather than regular mail would also be an effective way to get a response because people could answer the questions at their own convenience.
I would interview students about their involvement both on and off campus. For this particular survey, I would conduct a person to person interview. So many times mail and email can be forgotten and neglected and phone surveys can seem like a pain many times.
ReplyDeleteThe questions I would ask include:
1. What is your gender?
2. What year are you?
3. How long have you been attending school at NDSU?
4. What are you involved in on campus such as organizations?
5. What are you involved in outside of the campus such as volunteering?
These questions would not only allow me to gauge how many students are participate but it would allow me to look at demographics and other factors that may lend an idea to involvement issues.
1. One on-campus issue I would like to study is the nature of on-campus employment for students. I would like to find out how students with on-campus jobs feel about the amount of pay they receive relative to how many hours they work and the nature of their jobs. In order to complete this survey, I would first conduct a stratified random sample. To conduct this stratified sample, I would divide the entire NDSU student body population into strata—the strata being each individual place of employment on campus (i.e. one stratum would be the coffee shop system—all coffee shops together rather than each individual coffee shop because they are all technically the same “company,” so to speak, another stratum could be library employees, another could be campus attractions coordinators, and another could be the Taco Bell in the Memorial Union, etc.). I would then take a simple random sample within each stratum to choose several employees from each place of employment to interview. Using a stratified random sample allows my results to be random, but still make sure that each individual “company” on campus is equally represented than the rest. Equally representing each “company” on campus allows me to compare the nature of each job to the others; all jobs require different amounts of commitment and offers differing levels of pay.
ReplyDeleteSome possible questions I would ask include: the student’s major, how the student feels about his or her school work load, why he or she chose to work with on-campus employment, how much he or she is paid, how many hours he or she works during the week, how many hours he or she spends on homework per week, and the nature of duties performed at his or her on-campus job.
My mode of conducting these interviews is over the telephone because, according to p. 82 in Public Opinion, telephone interviews are, “fast and flexible.” College students (especially students with jobs) are generally busy and usually wouldn’t have time to set up in-person meetings. Using telephone interviews is more flexible and reliable because an interview can be set up with each randomly selected student employee at their convenience. I would not choose to do mail surveys or even e-mail surveys because those methods are so impersonal that students may not feel inclined to take the time to participate. According to p. 83 in Public Opinion, mail survey, “response rates can border on the horrific.” Telephone interviews will also allow some level of anonymity; since I would not be sitting face-to face with the student, he or she would feel slightly more inclined to give a more honest answer than would a student being spoken with face-to-face. Though mail surveys would probably provide the most honest answers, the response rate would be simply too unreliable to use in this type of a survey.
I would survey students on the football ticket distribution policy. Being in Student Government, I saw first hand how many problems this created at the beginning of the semester. Then I think students got so sick of it that they quit going to games.
ReplyDeleteI would use the email method for college students. We are all very busy and the faster you can gather information the better.
Questions I would ask:
Name, Age, Year in school?
How many football games did you attend last season?
Where you always able to get a ticket to the games you wanted to go to?
Did the new ticket policy change the way you wanted to attend football games?
What do you think is the best way to distribute the tickets?