SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: WDC14 : Reduction of Error in Rural and Agricultural Surveys (from WERA1001)
- Period Covered: 10/01/2007 to 09/01/2008
- Date of Report: 04/25/2008
- Annual Meeting Dates: 02/28/2008 to 02/29/2008
Participants
Virginia Lesser (Chair: Oregon) lesser@stat.orst.edu; John Allen (Utah State) johna@ext.usu.edu; Tom Allen (Washington State University); Shorna Broussard (Cornell) srb@fnr.purdue.edu; Don Dillman (Washington) dillman@wsu.edu; Courtney Flint (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana) cflint@uiuc.edu; Glenn Israel (Florida) gdisrael@ufl.edu; Bob Mason (Oregon) masonr@stat.orst.edu; Angela Mertig (Middle Tennessee State) amertig@mtsu.edu; Fred Lorenz (Secretary: Iowa) folorenz@iastate.edu; Rob Robertson (New Hampshire) robertr@cisuix.unh.edu; Steve Swinford (Montana) swinford@montana.edu<p> There are two new members, but they werent able to attend this year:<p>; Nick Place (University of Maryland); Wuyang Hu (University of Kentucky<p> The following are members or still have interest but were not able to attend:<p>; Brad Gentner (Nat. Oceanic and Atmosph. Admin) brad.gentner@noaa.gov; Marilyn Smith (Nevada) smithm@unce.unr.edu; Brian Meekins (BLS) Meekins_B@bls.gov; Todd Rockwood (Minnesota) trockwood@mn.rr.com; Robie Sangster (BLS) Sangster_R@bls.gov; Loretta Singletary (UN, Reno) singletary1@unce.unr.edu; John Saltiel (Montana) jsaltiel@.gmail.com; Fern Willits (Pennsylvania) fkw@psu.edu;
WDC-14 (WERA-1001): Experiments in Survey
Februrary 28-29, 2008
The 2008 annual meeting of WERA-1001 (WDC-14) was convened by Chair Ginny Lesser at 8:15am on February 28 at Tucson Inn Suites.
Opening administrative announcements: We discussed two related administrative concerns. First, we submitted a renewal proposal for WERA-1001, but it was not approved. One criticism was that it did not pay close enough attention to outreach. A revised proposal is in preparation that addresses this concern. Because we were not renewed, we are meeting this year as a temporary committee (WDC-14). We will resume next year as WERA-1001 if the revised proposal is approved.
Second, during the past decade Vicki McCracken has served as our administrative advisor and has contributed to the substantive discussions of the committee. Ginny announced that Vicki has stepped down from her administrative duties at Washington State. Because Vicki is no longer an administrator, she can no longer serve as our administrative advisor. Don noted that we can request specific people to serve as our administrative advisor. One suggestion was Jim Christensen, who is at the University of Arizona and an administrative director. Don agreed to follow up with Jim and appropriate Western Regional administrators to see if that would be agreeable to all concerned.
The members of WERA-1001 thanked Vicki for her many years of service and interest.
Meeting agenda: The agenda sent out before the meeting by Chair Ginny Lesser was approved. The topics were:
(1) A critique of current web survey software, especially SM;
(2) the US Postal Systems Delivery Sequence Files (DSF) as an alternative to increasingly more problematic approaches to sampling such as random digit dialing;
(3) mixed-mode surveys conducted during the past year;
(4) new research on spacing for open-ended questions;
(5) strategies for improving outreach: and
(6) state reports on experiments planned for the next 12 months and on completed experiments not subsumed under points (2)-(5).
Meeting adjourned.
Next year: Feb 26-27, 2008.
See Attached file for complete meeting details.
Accomplishments
Members coordinated experimental designs for work on survey methodology studies planned by several members in 2008. A number of members worked jointly on mixed-mode studies and studies investigating the impact of open-ended questions.
Members jointly presented a topic-contributed session on open-ended questions at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association.
Members presented short courses on survey methods (see details in minutes) to AES faculty and staff.
Members participated in the 2007 annual meeting which included a presentation on the latest version of survey software to conduct web surveys. This information is then shared with AES faculty and staff that consult with committee members on new survey technology.
Impacts
- The past year the committee has been investigating the impact of how one asks and presents the visual display for open-ended questions that appear in survey questionnaires. Preliminary results by committee members show that the presentation of the question does influence results. The committee is continuing to work on this topic. Four members of the committee presented preliminary results at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Statistical Association. Committee members intend to work on a joint publication to share the results of their research to other researchers.
- Members of this committee have presented short courses or workshops (to Agricultural Extension Staff) on ways to conduct better quality surveys which has been improving surveys conducted by AES. Attendees of these short courses have followed up with committee members to provide advice on improving their surveys.