I have heard that UHI learners have been asked to complete a lot of online surveys (developed with survey monkey) so I am concerned that I may not get many responses to yet another survey from their point of view. So I have been rethinking my tactics.
What I am thinking now is to offer every respondent some written feedback on what their survey answers suggest on how they like to learn and offer tips on learning so that they can learn more effectively through having an awareness of how they like to learn and how to make the most of these strengths. It’s worth a try and better than using bribery such as prize draws I feel.
I’ve been putting together a template with which to provide this service as efficiently as possible – in case I get a lot of takers.
This survey may therefore attract those who are keen to learn but I can take that into account in the analysis and would like to the learners to very much be an active part of the research process. I feel it’s more ethical somehow -as they will benefit directly from taking part.
Briefly I considered conducting the same survey with learners from other institutions such as Open University in the UK and Athabsaca University in Canada but have dropped the idea due to difficulty in gaining access to them.
I’ve designed two surveys. One for learners (20 questions) and the other for UHI staff with online teaching or course design experience (15 questions). I will compare the two. I have received feedback from colleagues on the questionnaires and have made changes accordingly. Particularly in tightening up some questions and deleting a couple of questions.
The next step is to pilot them before making them available after the Easter holidays – the week begining the 17th April. I have subscribed to survey monkey so am able to make the surveys look unique with specific colours and fonts etc and have access to good analysis filters.
