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Web surveys seem to be everywhere, and yet the science of conducting web surveys only emerging. The widespread availability of online survey software and platforms now makes it possible to design and administer a survey quickly, readily, and seemingly easily. Researchers across the substantive fields have abundantly taken advantage of these tools, and the social and medical sciences are increasingly coming to rely on self-administered web surveys as a primary source of data. The science of survey research is still catching up, with researchers only beginning to understand the implications -- both for good and for ill -- of web-based surveys on the quality of data.
One difference between web surveys and traditional surveys is the focus on visual communication. Keynote speaker Roger Tourangeau will discuss research on a variety of elements of visual design, and examine the impact of the prominence or visibility of information on screen. Tourangeau is an author on more than 60 research articles, many of them on the design of web surveys. He is also the lead author of a new book on web survey design (The Science of Web Surveys) with Fred Conrad and Mick Couper, published by Oxford University Press last year.
Other speakers will join to talk about emerging work in other areas of internet survey research. Fred Conrad will speak on new and innovative aspects of web surveys design; Lee Rainie will discuss how the rise of mobile connectivity and the “internet of things” may impact survey researchers; Leslie John will discuss tendencies to reveal embarrassing or sensitive things on the web; Michael Schoeber will discuss how elements of survey design can be linked to the disclosure of sensitive behaviors.
Open to the Public
Speakers Include:
- Roger Tourangeau (Westat) (Keynote Speaker)
- Fred Conrad (University of Michigan)
- Leslie John (Harvard Business School)
- Lee Rainie (Pew Internet and American Life Project)
- Michael Schober (New School for Social Research)
This conference, hosted by the Program on Survey Research at the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences at Harvard University and part of the Eric C. Mindich Experimental Social Science conference series, will benchmark the current state of our knowledge and suggest future directions for research.
Please rsvp by February 19, 2014 by signing up here.