Doing Research
Online surveys
Doing surveys online
To allow researchers to conduct surveys via the web the university subscribes to the Bristol Online Surveys (BOS) service provided by the University of Bristol ( http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/ ).
The BOS service, which is currently used by around 130 universities, is intuitive to use and little technical knowledge is required to create or maintain surveys.
A number of question types are available, including multiple choice, selection list and free text. Conditional follow-on questions, such as "If yes, then…", can also be added. BOS has in-built reporting features allowing users to cross-tabulate answers, filter on specific questions and view statistical information. Most usefully, data can be downloaded easily in a format suitable for import into Excel or SPSS to allow users to perform their own analysis.
Anyone interested in looking at BOS or getting a user account to create their own surveys should contact Derek Robertson in the Centre for eLearning Development ( d.j.robertson@stir.ac.uk ).
page last modified 17 December, 2009
