Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1981

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Jack B. Haskins

Abstract

The proposed development of regular campus-wide opinion surveys at The University of Tennessee-Knoxville required a statement of stand-ardized procedures, which is presented in this paper. The procedures are adaptable to other institutions. A preliminary assessment of the overall man-hour requirements and the efficiency of student assistants is also presented.

Students in two communications research courses assisted with survey tasks as part of course requirements. Their reports of time spent on various assignments were compiled with other cost data in a preliminary assessment of overall survey costs or cost equivalents. Interviewer efficiency, measured in interviews per hour of work, were computed for project interviewers to test two hypotheses, namely, that graduate students would be more efficient than undergraduates and that no significant difference would be found between male and female inter-viewers. Both hypotheses were supported. Paid interviewers were more productive than students, as expected, but no statistical test of that difference was feasible.

The pilot survey produced 374 respondents from an initial sample of 501 (74.6 percent) with an average questionnaire administration time of 15.3 minutes using 21 students for local telephone interviewing, two In 1974 professional interviewers, and one interviewer supervisor. dollars, the total cost equivalent of the survey was nearly $3,736 (about $10 per completed interview), of which students provided $765 (over 20 percent); the savings under 1981 conditions would be $1,224 out of a total estimated cost of $5,978.

The author concluded that student assistants were a significant asset to a high-quality campus opinion survey, that a larger complement of graduate students could improve efficiency, and that further research and study was necessary to secure an important increase in efficiency in an inflationary economy. The development of the survey also suggests that telephone interviewing is the appropriate data-gathering method from the standpoint of cost, scheduling ease, response rate, flexibility, pretesting, and other logistical factors.

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