Improving web survey efficiency: the impact of an extra reminder and reminder content on web survey response

Abstract

a Migration and Migrants, netherlands Interdisciplinary demographic Institute / KnaW / ug, the hague, the netherlands; b centre for Migration and Intercultural Studies, university of antwerp, antwerpen, Belgium ABSTRACTWith the growing possibilities for conducting web surveys, researchers increasingly use such surveys to recruit student samples for research purposes in a wide array of social science disciplines. Simultaneously, higher education students are recurrently asked to complete course and teacher evaluations online and to participate in small-scale research projects of fellow students, potentially leading to survey fatigue among student populations across the globe. One of the most frequently reported effects of over-surveying is a decrease in overall response rates. This situation has significant impacts on the generalizability and external validity of findings based on web surveys. The collection of reliable data is, nevertheless, crucial for researchers as well as educational practitioners and administrators, and strategies should be developed for achieving acceptable response rates. This paper reports on a methodological experiment (N = 15,651) conducted at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in which possible strategies to improve survey response are explored. I specifically focus on the impact of an extra reminder as well as specific reminder contents on response rates. The results reveal that extra reminders are effective for increasing response rates, but not for diversifying the sample.

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“…Overall, students who completed surveys represented slightly more than 0.5% of all students who signed up for science fair through Scienteer. Given that participation in the survey involved an indirect, single electronic invitation without incentive or follow-up, a low response rate was not surprising [15][16][17]. Most of the submitted surveys (>90%) were complete and non-duplicates.…”

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“…Initially, there were 8/33 responses (24%). Response rate to web-based surveys vary, but improve with each subsequent reminder, with an eventual expectation of approximately 30% [4]. A thank you was sent to those that had completed the survey, and one reminder was sent to the others who had not yet responded.…”

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“…Although over 2000 registered members of the EDTNA/ERCA were invited to take part, we cannot be sure all access their emails regularly, and if the invitation reached all members. That said, of the 818 that did open their email, an 11% response rate is typical for web surveys and can be treated as reliable when response quality is checked (Van Mol ). Also, although 30 countries provided responds to our survey, only two countries participated in the focus group and the majority of respondents were from one professional discipline (nursing).…”

“…Approximately 11% (n = 93) of members that opened the email participated in the survey and subsequent participants of the survey agreed to take part in the focus groups (n = 12). The 11% response rate is considered typical for web surveys and can be treated as reliable when response quality is checked (Van Mol ).…”