Open ended surveys tend to take more time to respond to: I really
don't see a problem in the coding of open-ended questions. Never-the-
less, open-ended surveys take more time to fill out, and unless the
subject is highly motivated, response rates go down.
However, BEFORE question formats can really be discussed one must
pose the research questions: i.e., what is the survey supposed to
measure and what will the responses be used for?
As soon as finals are over (6 days, thank goodness!), I will upload a
list of theoretical questions related to cross-cultural communication
via computer mediated communication. These theoretical issues are
easily converted to survey questions. Further, I assume such a
survey will measure more than just attitudes/opinions, but will
measure the percieved information needs of the Nativenet end-users.
Consequently some of the survey items should be "market questions"
related the kind of services that Nativenet offers.
Dr. George D. Baldwin
Chair, Dept. of Sociology
Henderson State Univerity
Arkadelphia, AR 71923 telephone: 501-246-5511 x3292