How survey recipients are chosen
In recent times, the number of requests to participate in online surveys at the University of Aberdeen has dramatically increased. With this increase, survey response rates have suffered because the majority of customers feel that they do not have the time to complete all the surveys. The problem is that non-response to a survey may mean that opinions regarding the various University systems and services go unheard, preventing improvement.
To combat poor response rates, the University of Aberdeen has developed a policy to restrict the number of people exposed to a survey at any given time. Instead of sending survey requests to all members of a particular group (for example all students or all members of staff), each group has been divided randomly into three sub-groups. Requests to participate in surveys will be sent in sequence to each sub-group so that only a third of the total group will be asked to participate in any survey at any one time.
To ensure that opinions remain representative, a single e-mail advising that the survey is taking place will be sent to the whole group. This allows anyone with a strong opinion about a particular survey to participate even if they are not formally requested to do so. No reminder e-mails will be sent to those outwith the sub-group.
If you want to find out more, e-mail websurveys@abdn.ac.uk