Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Similarly, it is important to consider who you want to participate in your
study.Someadultsmightbeexcludedinastudy,becauseoflimitedaccesstoa
chatroom,whileyoungpeoplemightbepreventedfromparticipatingbecause
of parental controls set on a computer.
Tips 'n Tricks
Questions to ask when considering sampling
Who is online?
How do you reach a certain population of participants?
How do you attain a random sample?
Does it matter who participates?
Will you want to collect demographic details?
How will you recruit participants?; “What's in it for them?”
Many of us in the United States can recall the incorrect poll findings of the
Literary Digest that predicted that Alf Landon would defeat President Roosevelt
in 1936 (Squire, 1988) and the Gallup Polls of 1948 that predicted Thomas
Dewey's win over the incumbent Harry S. Truman (http://www.loc.gov/
exhibits/treasurestrm 145.html accessed on 21 March 2007). In each case, the
samples were skewed by the over-inclusion of wealthy individuals. To use an
online example as an illustration, it is unlikely that an online study of society's
readiness to accept, and adapt to, a new technology will yield accurate results,
asadisproportionatenumberofindividualsonlinearelikelytobemorewilling
to accept a new technology than the general population. The point is that not
every study is appropriate for the online environment, for any number of rea-
sons. In addition, there may be specific challenges that need to be recognized
regarding accessing a particular population before designing a study.
There are a number of issues to consider when thinking about a research
sampleforanystudy.Designinganonlinestudysimplycompoundstheques-
tions and issues. Consider who you want in the study and where you are
going to find them. Who is likely to frequent your type of online environ-
ment? How can you get participants to participate in your site? How might
a researcher best engage a particular population? What technologies do
sample participants use, or are more likely to use? So, for example, if the goal
is to reach a young, technology savvied population likely to pursue high-tech
jobs, then game rooms and gaming interactive technologies are a likely place
to start pursuing research participants. These are the types of issues regard-
ing sampling that need to be considered prior to designing the technique for
data collection.
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