Reflecting on the survey exercise I see some things I would change given the opportunity to conduct the survey again or one similar to it. The results were not required to be used in our final research paper or any other formal report so I chose to survey people I already knew within my community. This, I believe, brought in results that were predictable in each individual survey. Also, my survey was concentrated to one geographical location, Grass Lake, so I did not use a link or an email invitation to conduct the survey but rather printed the survey and inserted the data manually. Some of the results may have been different if I had used a broader and more diverse range of individuals.
The most disappointing result in the survey, which is not honestly represented in the results, is that there is not a willingness to participate in the cause. I say it is not honest because I used participants that I knew would answer the question pertaining to participation the way I was wanting, thus loading the survey to fulfill my own desired results. This is a problem with a lot of survey results we may hear in the media. Who were the respondents and how broad and diverse were they is the first question I like to ask.
This was a good exercise to learn the usage of a tool like surveymonkey.com but it also reinforced the importance of how and who you obtain your results from in any survey. A survey that is to be used in a formal situation should be unbiased so I feel it is important to question the results of such a survey.
No comments:
Post a Comment