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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Using Chat Tools to Perform Evaluation Interviews Eve-Marie Larsen
Source The ASC's 5th International Conference, 2007: The Challenges of a Changing World: Developments in the Survey Process
Year 2007
Access date 23.10.2012
Abstract

To assess the administrative complexity of mobility for non-European students moving throughout Europe on the ERASMUS MUNDUS Network and E-business Centred Computing (NeBCC) program an extensive evaluation study is being undertaken throughout the period of student mobility. This evaluation is undertaken in a mixed mode with students completing a series of online surveys and participating in group interviews at each location they are studying at. To maximize the quantity and quality of the feedback that is given the interviews are strictly confidential and are conducted by a researcher who is non operational in the programme to reduce the problems associated with an unequal power balance. This allows the students to open up to a greater degree and share their feedback and their experiences. Other factors which may also effect how freely a student participates in the interview include the effect of the physical environment and the students own assumptions of that environment. Suler(2004) identifies the online disinhibition effect where people feel more uninhibited and thereby are willing to speak openly and share information more freely when communicating virtually using online tools, such as chat tools, than they are in a face to face situation. Six factors have been identified as reasons for this effect including the inherent minimization of authority associated with online communication as well as invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative anonymity and dissociative imagination. This paper considers the phenomena of online disinhibition and outlines some research being undertaken in order to exploit this phenomena by interviewing students in an online environment in an attempt to improve the results of the quality control measures on the NeBCC program. The suitability of using online chat tools to perform interviews is discussed with reference to the limitations of face to face interviewing techniques and the methodology and early results of this research are highlighted.

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Year of publication2007
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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