1.4.2 Concurrent Mixed Mode

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En provenance du cours de University of Michigan

Data Collection: Online, Telephone and Face-to-face

146 notes

University of Michigan

Data Collection: Online, Telephone and Face-to-face

146 notes

Cours 2 sur 7 dans Specialization Survey Data Collection and Analytics

This course presents research conducted to increase our understanding of how data collection decisions affect survey errors. This is not a “how–to-do-it” course on data collection, but instead reviews the literature on survey design decisions and data quality in order to sensitize learners to how alternative survey designs might impact the data obtained from those surveys. The course reviews a range of survey data collection methods that are both interview-based (face-to-face and telephone) and self-administered (paper questionnaires that are mailed and those that are implemented online, i.e. as web surveys). Mixed mode designs are also covered as well as several hybrid modes for collecting sensitive information e.g., self-administering the sensitive questions in what is otherwise a face-to-face interview. The course also covers newer methods such as mobile web and SMS (text message) interviews, and examines alternative data sources such as social media. It concentrates on the impact these techniques have on the quality of survey data, including error from measurement, nonresponse, and coverage, and assesses the tradeoffs between these error sources when researchers choose a mode or survey design.

À partir de la leçon

Module 1: Introduction, Classic Modes of Survey Data Collection

In this lesson, you will be introduced to some key concepts about survey data collection methods that we will rely on throughout the course. By the end of this lesson, you should be well acquainted with the major sources of survey error and how these are affected -- usually in the form of tradeoffs -- by the particular mode used to administer questions and capture responses.

1.4.1 Mixed Mode Design8:00

1.4.2 Concurrent Mixed Mode8:43

1.4.3 Sequential (Follow-up) Mixed Mode11:56

1.4.4 Interview with David Weir (U. Michigan) on Mixed Mode Designs15:55

Rencontrer les enseignants

Frederick Conrad, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Survey Methodology
Institute for Social Research

So, focusing in more detail on one of the designs,

one of the mixed-mode designs we just referred to, concurrent mixed-mode, again,

the idea is that within a single sample, different subgroups are interviewed or

their data are collected through different modes.

So, for example, one might collect data via the web from

those with Internet access and use mail for those without Internet access.

The benefits are that it should reduce coverage and nonresponse error.

The down side is that there may be mode effects on measurement,

they're confounded with subgroups.

And so, it's hard to know if the differences you're seeing between

modes are due to real differences between subgroups or

are due to the modes themselves.

Mode preference is an important construct in concurrent mixed-mode of

designs because one might aim to collect

data from respondents in the mode or in a mode that they indicate they prefer.

But actually measuring preference is

a little bit tricky because respondents tend to indicate

that they prefer the mode in which their preferences are being elicited.

So, in this table from de Leeuw, we can see

that if respondent's mode preference was elicited by mail, they

tended to report preferring mail, compared to face-to-face and telephone interviews.

But if their preferences were elicited face-to-face,

they tended to indicate they preferred face-to-face, and if they were asked in

a telephone interview what their preferred mode is they tended to indicate telephone.

But, mode preference does seem to have some consequences on participation.

So in a study by Olson and

colleagues, they measured mode preference in a 2008 telephone survey.

They asked respondents if they preferred phone, web, or mail.

And then in 2009, respondents were invited to a second survey.

And assigned to one of four modes, possibly their preferred mode.

As you can see, the yellow bars indicate no mode preference.

That is, their respondent's mode preference was not elicited,

kind of a control group.

And the blue bars correspond to the respondents whose preference was elicited,

the y-axis' response right here.

If the respondents were interviewed or

if their data were collected via web in the second survey and they had indicated

a preference for web, then they were reliably more likely to participate.

So the blue bar is significantly higher than the yellow bar.

In web only, that is, when respondents indicated they preferred web and

were interviewed by web, they participated at higher rates.

Mail seems to be kind of robust to mode preference.

So, if respondents were interviewed by mail,

response rates were high no matter what mode they indicated a preference for.

Mode preference is important in this kind of design, as I indicated, it's not

the same as actually allowing respondents or requiring respondents to choose a mode.

So, mode choice is kind of a stronger version of collecting data from

respondents in a mode that they not only show a preference for, but

actually take the initiative to select.

An important meta-analysis was conducted by Fulton and

Medway, because it had been reported in a number of studies that

giving respondents a choice, while believed to increase response rate,

was actually resulting in lower response rates.

So, Fulton and Medway looked across a number of studies that paired

a male invitation with

either a male questionnaire, that is,

the male questionnaire was included in the invitation letter,

or completing by web, that is, the invitation letter contained a URL that

respondents could enter into a computer, and respond by web.

So they looked across 19 studies that used this type of mixed-mode design,

in which half of the respondents were given this choice between mail and web,

and the other half, generally, were only offered a mailed out paper questionnaire.

So what they found was that in eight studies,

response rate was reliably lower, with a choice then without a choice, and

in nine other studies, the effect was in this direction.

So overall, there's pretty strong evidence that giving respondents a choice,

requiring them to choose between mailed out a paper questionnaire and

web actually lowered participation.

Only in two studies did the pattern go in the opposite direction.

That is, in only two studies did response rate increase

when the respondents where given a choice.

The explanation that Fulton and Medway suggest is that

this kind of choice increases complexity, making both options less attractive.

And it creates a break in the response process,

if respondents decide to switch modes.

And that break can reduce the number of starts.

So a respondent who intends to enter that URL into a computer may never

actually get there, and so that's the explanation they've offered.

A kind of operational extension of this that they also suggest is that

by, sort of, pushing respondents to the web,

they may encounter connectivity problems or usability problems that they

wouldn't have encountered if they'd only been able to respond by paper.

So, there does seem to be an impact of choice,

at least of this type on nonresponse, but

that doesn't mean there aren't advantages for measurement error or for measurement

by requiring respondents to choose the mode in which their data are collected.

Conrad et al., argued that choice, especially when it's easy to implement,

especially if respondents choose a convenient mode,

should improve performance.

They contact respondents on smart phones in one of four modes.

What they call human voice, which is basically a telephone interview.

Human text or SMS, in which a human interviewer texted survey questions and

respondents texted their answers.

Automated voice, in which a recorded voice was played

over the phone app and respondents spoke their answers, and automated text,

in which a computer texted questions and respondents texted their answers.

The respondents are required to choose one of these modes and

they could choose the mode that they were contacted in.

Essentially what they found was an advantage for measurement,

less measurement error, less rounding and straightlining.

So these are two measures that have been considered indicative of what's called

satisfy images, kind of taking mental shortcuts to reduce effort.

So, rounded numerical answers tend to indicate maybe less complete,

less thorough, thought about the answer, so I was saying 100 rather

than 97 may well reflect a kind

of least effort strategy, or an attempt to reduce effort by the respondent.

Straightlining refers to selecting the same response

option when a series of questions all use the same response scale, and

the idea is that if respondents are giving the same answer to all of these questions,

they probably aren't fully considering their answers.

In any case, when respondents chose their mode of data collection, they exhibited

less rounding, less straightlining, so less satisficing by these two measures.

Mode choice also reduced breakoffs, that is, abandoning the interview midstream.

And it increased satisfaction, than when respondents were assigned a mode, that is,

when they weren't given a choice.

So in the next segment, we'll talk about the more common type of mixed-mode design,

sequential mixed-mode studies.

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