Project

How do psychological factors affect the way respondents complete multi-device web surveys and what impact does this have on data quality?

Survey-based formats of assessing teaching quality in education are widely used. Nowadays, respondents are increasingly using mobile devices to complete web surveys. This dissertation project examines the impact of this new trend on survey data quality and identifies measures that may be taken to ensure good data quality.

Adobe Stock / Maria_Savenko

Web surveys are widely used in (higher) education to assess the quality of teaching. In response to growing international cooperation and competition, a process was set in motion to demonstrate the quality of (higher) education. This in turn created a need for accountability practices that continues to this day. As mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, are now increasingly being used on campuses all over the world, the practicability and feasibility of ‘mobile’ evaluation of teaching and courses have become a topic of discussion. The dissertation project focuses on how university students and participants enrolled in continuing education complete web surveys. It will examine the extent to which the approach used by respondents to fill out web surveys affects survey data quality. We will also seek to identify measures that may be taken to ensure good data quality. The dissertation findings will thus help to empirically validate the work of SFUVET’s Evaluation Unit and enable evaluation work to be adjusted in response to changing conditions brought on by the ongoing process of digital transformation. This dissertation project will furthermore help to ensure that SFUVET offers its students, clients and customers up-to-date feedback tools for its training courses and that SFIVET lecturers will have reliable evaluation data that can be used to further improve their teaching activities.

Dissertation supervisors:

Prof. Dr. Ulf-Dietrich Reips (University of Konstanz, Germany)
Prof. Dr. Lars Balzer (SFUVET)

Method

Webexperiments with surveys

Publications

Presentations

How do psychological factors affect the way respondents complete multi-device web surveys and what impact does this have on data quality?

Laupper, E., Kaufmann, E., & Reips, U.-D. (2023). The Late Responding Phenomenon in Web versus Mail Surveys: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Survey Research Methods, 17(4), 465-491. https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2023.v17i4.8126

Laupper, E. (2024, January). Can a targeted Refusal Conversion Strategy increase Data Quality? – First Results of a Websurvey Experiment [Presentation]. Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E., Kaufmann, E., & Reips, U.-D. (2023, September). Late Responding in Web and Mail Surveys – Results of a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis [Presentation]. 16th meeting of the Methods and Evaluation Division of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E. (2023, July). An Automated targeted Refusal Conversion Strategy for a Business Web Survey – Testing and Implementing a Refusal Questionnaire [Presentation]. Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E. (2023, February). An Automated targeted Refusal Conversion Strategy for a Business Web Survey – Developing A Refusal Questionnaire [Presentation]. Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E. (2022, November). An Automated targeted Refusal Conversion Strategy for a Business Web Survey – A Field Experiment (Project Outline). Paper presented at the Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E., Kaufmann, E., & Reips, U.-D. (2022, January). Late Responding in Web and Mail Surveys - Results of a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Paper presented at the Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E., Kaufmann, E., & Reips, U.-D. (2021, September). Better late than not at all? A Systematic Review on Late Responding in (Web) Surveys. Paper presented at the General Online Research Conference (GOR), Berlin, Germany (online).

Laupper, E. (2021, June). Better late than not at all? A Systematic Review on Late Responding in (Web) Surveys (Some Preliminary Results). Paper presented at the Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E. (2021, January). Aspects of Time in Web Survey Research - Update on the PhD Project with Emphasis on a Planed Meta-analysis. Paper presented at the Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.

Laupper, E. (2020, July). Timing your web survey (2) – Some Preliminary results from the timing2 study. Paper presented at the Research Colloquium of the iScience group at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.