The Effect of Using Web Technologies to Gather Educational Research Data, and Impact on Research Results

Abstract: There are different ways of administering a questionnaire, such as with a pen and paper, face-to-face, over the phone, or via a computer, for example. Some researchers may select a specific mode or use more than one mode within a single study to generate additional responses. Moreover, it is widely agreed that the way in which a questionnaire is administered affects output data (Grandjean et al., 2009, Koponen et al., 2011, Kelly et al., 2008). This paper aims to show the ways in which results from web-based approaches—which are notably based on using web technology—and the paper-based mode of distributing a questionnaire may be dissimilar. Furthermore, this paper shows the way in which the researcher has dealt with the gap in the results.

Keywords: Expert power, Referent power, Self-confidence, Reliance, Connectedness