Limitations of Questionnaires and Web Experiments

Web experiments and questionnaires are vital methods for analyzing epidemiology and provide vital information on public health and disease. They are a typical method of gathering data that is typically less expensive and time intensive than face-to-face interviews, paper questionnaires mailed or automated menus for telephone systems. Questionnaires and Web experiments aren’t without their limitations, which must be addressed in order to obtain valid and reliable results.

A questionnaire may be affected by response bias. This is the tendency of respondents to answer questions based on their own opinions instead of research goals. The internet-based.org/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-questionnaires/ structure of a questionnaire can influence responses in a variety of ways. For instance the wording of the question could influence whether respondents understand the question and interpret it in the same way (reliable) as well as whether the question is a good indicator of what you are interested in (valid), and whether they can accurately answer (credible).

Respondents may also experience fatigue or a lack of interest in the questions that are asked, which reduces the likelihood of them providing honest answers. In addition, the absence of incentives or compensation could discourage participants from taking the time to fill out an application.

Online questionnaires can be challenging for certain experiment designs like studies of reaction time or position. The varying settings of browsers screens, sizes, and operating systems makes it challenging to control and measure the same variables across all participants.

In addition, Web-based surveys are only available to people who are keyboard and Internet literate, which currently excludes a significant portion of the population. It is also difficult to Web researchers to report on participants after the window for their experiment has ended.