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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Comparing Tablet, Computer, and Smartphone Survey Administrations
Year 2013
Access date 31.05.2013
Abstract

“Survey respondents are increasingly attempting to take surveys on their mobile devices, whether researchers intend for this or not” (Cazes et al., 2011, p. 2). Approximately 50% of U.S. adults own a smartphone (Nielsen 2012; Smith 2012) and approximately 20% of U.S. adults own a tablet (Rainie 2012). These trends have serious implications for online surveys, especially for those not optimized for mobile devices. In this paper, we present results from tablet, computer, and smartphone administrations of a survey. Our main focus is on surveys taken with tablets and whether tablet survey administration is comparable to computer survey administration. There is currently very little research on tablet administration of online surveys, however, with tablet ownership on the rise, understanding the effects of this survey mode will become increasingly more important. In this study, we fielded a survey to a large, national sample of online panelists, who are also smartphone users. For the mode effect research being conducted, panelists were randomly assigned to a mobile app version or an online computer version of the survey. However, among the 711 respondents completing the online survey, 128 completed the survey using a smartphone mobile Web browser and 33 completed the survey using a tablet. We analyze three measures of survey taking behavior—breakoff rates, survey completion times, and item-missing data—among tablet respondents, computer respondents, and smartphone respondents (both mobile app and mobile Web respondents). Based on our analysis, tablet survey administration appears to be comparable to computer survey administration. Across each measure, differences in survey taking behaviors were small and not statistically significant. At the same time, with two of the measures—breakoff rates and survey completion time—we consistently uncovered differences between smartphone administration and computer administration, with differences being more pronounced among smartphone mobile Web respondents.

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Year of publication2013
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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Web survey bibliography - Link, M. W. (16)