Recent trends show that survey respondents are increasingly difficult and expensive to reach. Methodology research consistently demonstrates that
tailored and adaptive designs may offer the best solution for collecting high-quality data. One strategy that can increase coverage and representativeness — and potentially reduce cost — uses sequential mix
ed-mode designs that include a web-based response component. In January 2016, the National Center for Education Statistics will test a sequential mixed-mode, web-push design for the 2016 administration of the National Household Education Survey (NHES). For several cycles, the NHES has used an address-based sample to administer a two-phase, self-
administered mailed questionnaire in which sampled households are rostered using a phase-1 screener and then a single individual is sampled from responding households to complete a longer phase-2 “topical” survey. This presentation will describe the process of adapting the two-phase paper design to incorporate a variable-phase web survey, and some of the key challenges faced while transitioning from a well-tested paper-only to a mixed-mode administration. Authors will describe the tradeoffs between maintaining consistency with the paper instrument and optimizing the web survey; the complexity of building a web instrument that in some situations (e.g., single-adult households) must be a single-phase survey with both phases completed by one individual, while other situations require a different respondent to complete each phase; and the intricacies of using phase-1 screener data to customize wording in both English and Spanish using known information about the respondent. In addition to discussing the above challenges and proposed solutions, the paper will present selected results of usability testing and the resulting design changes to the web instrument. This study contributes to the growing body of research examining the most effective ways to use mixed-mode designs to increase survey response and representativeness while minimizing cost and mode effects in a national household survey.