Web-based experiments and questionnaires are essential epidemiologic tools that provide vital information on public health and diseases. These are common methods of collecting data, which are typically less costly and time-consuming than face-toface interviews, mail-in questionnaires, or automated telephone menu systems. Questionnaires and Web experiments are not free of limitations, which should be addressed to achieve reliable and valid results.
A questionnaire can be affected by response bias. This is the tendency for respondents to answer questions based on their own opinions, rather than research objectives. The layout of a survey can influence responses in many ways. For example, the internet-based.org/business-with-virtual-boardroom wording of the question may affect whether respondents are able to comprehend the question and interpret it in the same way (reliable), whether the question is relevant to what you are interested in (valid) and the ability of respondents to accurately answer (credible).
Respondents can also experience survey fatigue or lack of engagement with the questions which decreases the probability of them giving honest answers. A lack of incentives or compensation could make it difficult for respondents to fill out the questionnaire.
Online questionnaires also pose challenges for some experimental designs for example, positioning or reaction time studies. The variation in settings for browsers screens, sizes, and operating systems makes it difficult to control and measure the same variables across participants.
In addition, Web-based surveys are only available to people who are keyboard and Internet proficient, which currently excludes a significant portion of the population. It’s also difficult for Web researchers debriefing participants after the experiment window has ended.
