Jo d’Ardenne (NatCen Social Research) delivered a survey methods webinar on Thursday 17 November 2022.

The event was part of our seminar series organised with City, University of London and NatCen Social Research.

Up until Round 10 (2020-22) of our survey, data was always collected from face-to-face interviews.

As a result of measures implemented to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, self-completion methods were allowed for the first time.

Ahead of fieldwork, the ESS - in partnership with NatCen and CentERdata - developed a prototype electronic questionnaire device (EQD) - a tablet preloaded with a self-completion questionnaire.

This allowed the ESS, NatCen and CentERdata to trial whether the device could be used as a supplementary mode of data collection alongside a push-to-web survey.

In particular, its implementation explored whether the technology could be used by independently households with no internet collection and/or by respondents with little or no experience of using smartphones or tablets.

In this presentation Jo d’Ardenne (NatCen Social Research) showcased how the EQD was developed and tested. This included the findings from usability testing, including how the EQD was made more accessible for the target audience.

It also focused on an acceptability test, in which the EQD was trialled in four countries (Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and the UK).

The presentation considered the quality of the data collected using the device, including findings on break-off rates and the codability of different formats of open questions (typing versus audio-recording).

Finally, the webinar assessed the broader implications of this project, including the potential advantages and disadvantages of the EQD mode.

About the speaker
Jo d’Ardenne is a Senior Research Director at NatCen Social Research and is the head of their Questionnaire Development and Testing (QDT) Hub.

Jo has extensive experience in leading methodological reviews, cognitive interviewing and user-testing projects. Jo regularly provides consultancy on questionnaire design for a wide range of government, academic and public sector organisations.

She is a co-author of Cognitive Interviewing Practice, a textbook published by Sage. Her interests are respondent-centred design, the impact of mode on questionnaire design and cross-national cognitive interviewing.