Overcoming Challenges to Conducting Online Surveys

Abstract

The widespread use of personal computers in the work place and at home has created a new opportunity of conducting research. With the increasing accessibility of the Internet and e-mail, using the new medium to distribute surveys is gaining popularity among researchers. The online survey, however, is a “double-edged sword” with the ability to access a large number of respondents at low costs but the risk of increasing difficulties to evaluate the quality of the research (Couper, 2000). Concerns over response rates, sampling, and controlling the data collection environment have posed serious challenges to online survey researchers. The purpose of the present paper is to offer suggestions for addressing these concerns. After a brief discussion on the formats of online surveys, the author will outline the challenges of conducting online surveys and provide some strategies to overcome these challenges.