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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Flash, Javascript or PHP? Comparing the availability of technical equipment among university applicants
Year 2006
Access date 20.09.2006
Abstract Modern technologies allow for a wide variety in the design of online questionnaires. A well known issue is the coverage of new technologies and their availability on the participants’ computers. Especially the use beyond pure HTML, e.g. Javascript or Flash is known to impose problems and to exclude participants. In the case of university applicants who need to apply online, everyone should be able to access the application forms. The use of Java-Applets at the university of Mannheim lead to comparatively low participation rates in the past. The change to server-site technology (PHP) lead to an online application rate of 99.7% compared to paper and pencil application. One drawback of this approach is the loss of the possibility to give immediate feedback (hard and soft answer controls) while responding to multiple form elements on one page. To learn more about the present coverage of different technologies (Flash, Javascript, Cookies, Java, Mediaplayer, Realplayer, Quicktime, scalable vector graphics, screen resolution, browsers used) in this group which is characterized by a high internet penetration rate, we collected data on more than 15000 university applicants for the summer and winter term 2005. The results show that some technologies are far more common than hitherto assumed (e.g. Javascript availability in this group is higher than 99%). The surprisingly high availability of several client-site technologies allows for questionnaire designs and implementations which have been hitherto avoided. The results show that the least common denominator in available technology on client-site does not necessarily need to be pure HTML-code.
Access/Direct link Conference homepage (abstract)
Year of publication2006
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Full text availabilityNon-existant
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Web survey bibliography (4086)

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