Over the past few years, the University of Michigan and RAND have been evaluating the feasibility of Web data collection among older Americans. As part of this effort, we have been using the Survey of Consumer Attitudes (SCA), a monthly RDD telephone survey, to recruit participants for the American Life Panel (ALP), an online Internet panel of persons 40 and older, maintained by RAND. This paper describes these recruitment efforts, and examines demographic and attitudinal correlates of Internet access, willingness to participate in the online panel, and actual participation across several waves of data collection.

Of the almost 7,300 eligible respondents interviewed in the SCA from January 2002 to December 2006, 69% reported using the Internet. About 50% of Internet users expressed willingness to join the ALP, while 42% of non-users agreed. Those who did not use the Internet, along with a subset of Internet users, were assigned to receive telephone surveys. We focus here on the online surveys among Internet users. Internet users who were willing to participate in the ALP were further asked to provide an e-mail address; 82% did so, while 5% reported they had no e-mail address, and 12% declined. A subset of these SCA respondents was sent a mailed invitation to participate in the first online survey for ALP; those who provided an e-mail address were also sent an e-mail invitation. Of those invited, 48% completed the first online survey. We report on the differential coverage and nonresponse errors at each stage of the recruitment process, and also examine retention across several waves of the online panel.