Knock Knock: Walk in with a Quantitative Questionnaire

• Activity Number: 412
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Mehary T. Stafford*+
• Companies: University of North Texas
• Keywords: survey ; method ; walk-in ; response ; rate ; quantitative

Abstract

This study explains an effective method of collecting data from a group of scientists working in a region with a historic low response rate. Researchers seek to get relevant data to answer specific research questions. One of the major challenges is getting enough data to analyze. In a time of information overload there is still a need to collect more data from people groups we know little about. However, collecting data from a region with a historic low response rate is a major challenge. This study used a walk-in method of distributing questionnaires in person. Four hundred questionnaires were distributed to a university faculty and 298 questionnaires were returned resulting in a 74.5 % response rate. After exclusion of 12 cases with missing information, 286 cases (71.5 % response rate) were analyzed. Most of the respondents were men (M=92.1%, F=7.9 %).