Conducting an online survey during a pandemic

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In this blog post, I share some insights and experiences of using online surveys to collect data for a research project (at any level!). These are based on my own experiences adapting my PhD research during the Covid-19 pandemic (I moved a lot of planned in-person methods online, which included an online survey).

First, I'll give a very broad overview of the benefits and considerations of conducting online surveys (assuming a little or no prior knowledge), and how they can be used effectively within the research design. This includes links to various resources which I've found useful in my own research - I've compiled these into a list at the bottom of the post.

I'll then share some of my experiences of promoting my research, recruiting participants online, the importance of designing an effective communication/engagement strategy, and different survey platforms you can use.

1. Why use online surveys?

Survey questionnaires are one of the most popular methods for social research: they are flexible, adaptable, low-cost, and easy to implement to provide quick results for a study. They also don't require a lot of resources, e.g. you can easily carry out an online survey as a lone researcher.

However, surveys are also one of the most misused methods - there's a lot to consider in terms of the survey design, recruitment, sampling, analysis, and so forth. There are also different considerations for using in-person surveys in the field and online surveys. This can inlude the researcher's ability to communicate and engage with participants, the potential for misinterpretation and bias, and the ethics of conducting online data collection.

I ultimately decided to use an online survey to collect data for my research because it was a pragmatic choice at the time, i.e. it made sense to use this method to quickly gather information to begin to answer my research questions. I needed to quickly collect information to produce broad themes in my research area, to inform later stages of the project. Surveys can also be a great way to recruit participants for later stages of the study, e.g. for more in-depth focus groups and interviews, or to take part in a future survey. The great thing about surveys is that they're so flexible and adaptable to meeting your research needs!

During the pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing measures has meant that we can't conduct face-to-face research. As demonstrated by the resources below, there are lots of different ways you can conduct research online. Online surveys can be a great, low-cost, and straightforward alternative to in-person questionnaires and interviews (hence their popularity!).

2. Some key considerations

If you haven't conducted a survey before, it's useful to read up on the basics of survey methodology in literature relevant to your study area. For example, the SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods (this book is a great starting point if you're new to online methods), Handbook of Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences, Research Training for Social Scientists, Doing Qualitative Research Online, and lots of others. I've written a list of useful books, papers, blog posts, and other free/online resources at the end of this blog post.

It's worth mentioning that this document on conducting fieldwork in a pandemic (initiated by Deborah Lupton) is incredibly useful for researchers from all disciplinary backgrounds. It includes resources for a variety of virtual and online methodological approaches, and there's specific information about online surveys from page 23.


Some useful text books for conducting surveys and other online research methods
 

There are lots of web pages which compile different resources for conducting surveys specifically, or conducting online research during a pandemic in general. For example, there's some good information about 'research during the pandemic' on the University of Edinburgh's website (which gathers research methods resources for working remotely and online during the pandemic). 'Online research methods in a pandemic', by the Social and Cultural Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, is also an insightful read. This blog post by Helen Kara discusses some alternative online/virtual methods, and others (like this LSE blog post) discuss how you can conduct qualitative fieldwork during a pandemic. Thanks to the time, effort, and knowledge of others, it's great that we have access to such a variety of free and crowdsourced resources which can help us decide how to best carry out research online (particularly during these very challenging times).

3. Survey design and recruitment

My top tips for conducting online surveys would be: 1) keep it simple and concise, and; 2) design an effective communications strategy to engage with respondents online.

It's important to think about the design of your online survey, and how this can be best suited to your participants (i.e. the demographic) and method of recruitment. If you're planning on recruiting your participants on social media, for example, it's recommended to keep your survey as simple as possible - e.g. a short completion time, relevant and concise questions, and minimising the amount of open-ended (text-box) questions you ask. The survey I conducted for my PhD research had a 5-minute completion time, minimal question pages, and simple question design (tick-boxes, Likert scales, yes/no answers). I included an open-ended question at the end of the survey, so that participants had the opportunity to include additional information if they chose to. 

I think that Twitter is a fantastic platform to share surveys. Going back to the basics, you can tag (@) key people and organisations in your posts (so that they can easily access, complete, and share your survey with others), and you can use hashtags (#) to link key words. For example, I used the hashtag #DigitalCommunityEngagement to share my survey and connect with professionals on Twitter.

It's also crucial to think about how your survey will look on different devices, e.g. mobile phone, tablet, and desktop computer. If you're sharing your survey on social media, the majority of people will be scrolling on their mobile phones, so might not have the time (or patience) for a long and complex survey. Most online survey platforms give you a preview of what your survey will look like on different screen sizes, so you can make appropriate edits. 

You can find out more about how you can design your online survey in the most effective way in the Handbook of Survey Methodology, free resources from Pew Research Centre, or this PDF book chapter on online survey methodology.

4. Developing a promotion and communication strategy

Designing an effective communications strategy for your research can really help to increase interest and participation. This doesn't have to be complicated or take up a lot of time, for example a lot of people use simple infographics to promote their study on social media. Designing an infographic, and/or including an image, is a really nice way to quickly and visually communicate information about your research - ultimately encouraging people to take part! I've included an infographic I used during my PhD research as an example below, which I made with Piktochart (however, in hindsight, I feel this is a little text-heavy!). I also created these infographics to communicate key messages from my research.

You can also create great infographics in Microsoft Office software, such as Publisher (or Word/PowerPoint if you're not confident with Publisher). Diagrams.net (previously draw.io) is another choice which is completely free to use, however it's a little more fiddly and more appropriate for diagrams (however you could make a decent enough infographic!).

One tip here would be to try and 'sell' yourself and your project (why is it important? Why should people participate?). This can feel a little awkward if you haven't done it before, so you could chat to a supervisor or colleague about how to best approach this. You could do this by 'branding' your study - I didn't do a very creative job of this, but I've seen some amazing examples from other researchers on Twitter. Ultimately, make it as easy as possible for people to access and understand information about your project, and take part.


One of the infographics used to promote my online survey on Twitter (I designed this one on Piktochart)

 

Another great method for increasing study participants is blog posts. I wrote this blog post for an organisation within my network - this post included an overview of my study, research area, and some key points of interest for practice. I created another infographic for this post, which you can see here. Alongside this blog post, I included a link to some information about my research and a link to my survey, which helped me recruit a number of new participants who I may not have previously reached.

I'm not sure whether this was easier or more difficult to recruit participants during the pandemic (it would be interesting to find out), but my goal was to make it as easy for people to engage with my project as possible. Surveys are also a great way to recruit participants for further stages of data collection, e.g. future surveys or follow-up interviews.

I won't talk about sampling here, but your sampling method is important to think about (particularly if you are using internet-based methods like social media to recruit participants), for example with regards to selection bias.

5. Online survey platforms

There are lots of options when it comes to selecting online survey software for your project. I think this really comes down to what you're most familiar with and/or comfortable using, and how much money you're willing (or not willing) to spend. If you're a student, you can find out what survey platform your institution uses and/or talk to supervisors and colleagues.

Here's a useful article which outlines some of the pros and cons of different online survey platforms. I have used SurveyMonkey for previous studies which is fine to use (and free to start with), however much prefer Jisc online surveys as it's specifically designed for academic research (and most academic institutions have free access to it). Jisc online surveys is really easy to set up, share, keep track of responses, summarise your data and export it for further statistical analysis. Writing a post about downloading, manipulating, and analysing survey data is on my to-do list - watch this space!

Resources for conducting online surveys

Blog posts
Other free/online resources
Text books and academic papers
 
Photo by William Iven on Unsplash
I'm a final year PhD researcher in geography and environmental planning exploring the relationships between technology, society, and the environment. I'm particularly interested in participatory approaches and stakeholder engagement, the ethical debates around data and digital technology, and developing frameworks for best practice. Follow me on Twitter @CaitlinHafferty for more.