Phase 3 involved the use of an electronic survey (Annexure J) to determine the experience of the students undertaking the course. A survey provides quantitative or numeric descriptions of trends, attitudes, or opinions of the population by studying that grouping. In a survey, data provides a slice of life at a particular moment in time and this is seen as static. Information often included is about the characteristics, opinions, attitudes and previous experiences, by
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asking questions and analysing the results (Leedy & Ormond, 2013).
Population
In Phase 3, the entire population of second-year students who were enrolled for the meso practice course in 2015 were invited to participate in the survey. Of a population of 80 students, 66 students took part in the survey, excluding the students who were absent from the class or chose not to participate. There was no sampling used as the entire population was included.
Survey instrument
The electronic survey questionnaire was administered to the entire class, using the SurveyMonkey application comprising 43 closed-ended and 8 open-ended questions, using a 5-point Likert scale and a few short answers (Annexure J).
Development of survey instrument
SurveyMonkey allows for customisable online survey tools and includes basic data analysis,
sample selection, bias elimination and data representation tools. The survey was initially
designed on the Ms Word programme and amendments were made, giving consideration to open- and closed-ended questions. The similarity between an online survey and pen and paper survey was found by Bryman (2012) when conducting research on illicit drug-use with university students. Moreover, in survey development, the use of a dichotomous scale offering the respondent two choices is very limiting. However when the respondent is presented greater options with the use of a trichotomous scale, this provides for greater variation in responses. Thus, in this study, use was made of a five-point scale to offer more options to the respondents. The limitations of using closed-ended questions are that they may expose the respondent to guessing and are based on recall. The advantages of close-ended questions are that they are very specific and direct. In addition, students were reminded to answer the questions in relation to the meso practice course.
I considered the following steps when developing the survey. Firstly, the individual interprets the question and deduces the intent, next there is a search of the memory bank for the relevant information. Thirdly, there is “integration of whatever information that comes to mind in a single judgement which then results in translation of the judgement into a response by selecting one of the alternatives” (Krosnick & Presser, 2010, p. 265).
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When designing the survey consideration was also given to the following aspects:
● Use was made of simple language, excluding words that have a double meaning and sentences that lead the respondent in a particular direction.
● All sections of the survey began with the use of closed-ended statements that were pleasant and easy to answer.
● Each of the eight sections ended with an open-ended question.
In addition, the survey provided an indication of the respondents’ progress with the survey. Throughout the survey, use was made of questions that addressed the main aspects of the study which, in this case, were the elements of authentic learning (Krosnick & Presser, 2010). The process of survey design included item discrimination. Use was made of Herrington’s (1997) PhD instrument to incorporate the various elements of authentic learning in the survey questionnaire.
Bryman (2012) provides a useful evaluation of a self-completion questionnaire in relation to a structured interview. A survey is seen to be of value, as it should be easy to follow and the questions easy to answer, and there are fewer open-ended questions compared to a structured interview. Leedy and Ormond (2013) indicate that a critical aspect of a survey is the manner in which the questions are worded. In developing the questions for the survey, I considered the work of Herrington (1997) and adapted some of the questions she developed to understand the use of authentic elements. The other advantage of using an online survey is that the tool is quicker to administer and there is an absence of interviewer effects or interviewer variability. These aspects are important because of the power dynamics between the educator and the student. Another advantage of using an online survey is that there is a faster response time, fewer unanswered questions and better response to open-ended questions (McCabe, 2004). Typically, if the survey were online, respondents could complete it at a time and place suitable to them, but this could have resulted in a lower response rate. In the light of student challenges to accessing the internet (Nash, 2009), it was preferable to permit students to complete the survey at a pre-booked computer laboratory with access to the university after a class lecture.
The limitations of a survey are that there can be no prompts and probes, and the respondent cannot ask many questions that are salient to them. The other limitation is that the data
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generated is self-reporting, so responses can be influenced by socially desirable motives and may not be carefully considered. To counteract this limitation, individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with students using a research facilitator to prevent students providing socially desirable answers to the educator.
Pre-testing of the survey
The survey instrument was pre-tested with three third-year students who had been registered for the course in 2014 and would therefore not be part of the sample for this study. Interviews were conducted with students after they had taken the survey and minor changes were made in response.
Reliability was enhanced by ensuring that the questions were relevant and understood. The weakness of a survey is that it is regarded as superficial for complex information and weak on validity, so that responses should be regarded as approximate indicators of what was considered when the questions were designed (Babbie, 2010). This weakness of the survey in providing superficial data was mitigated through the use of focus groups and individual interviews with students to obtain richer data. However, the strengths of survey research are that it is useful to obtain attitudes from large numbers of participants and it can collect a large amount of standardised data in a cost-effective manner.
Survey - data analysis
Closed-ended Questions
The closed-ended questions were used to collect some demographical data and student experiences of the meso practice course taught at the beginning of 2015. By using SurveyMonkey, respondents’ replies are logged in directly by the respondent and the entire dataset can be retrieved once data collection is completed. Descriptive statistics were used for the closed- ended data questions, which “saves time and reduces the likelihood of error”. Herrington’s (1997) survey was adapted and used to collect some demographical data.
Open-ended Questions
There were nine open-ended text items included in the survey and participant responses were recorded verbatim:
1. Explain in your own words what meso practice is.
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2. Write in the space provided some of the social work skills you learned from the meso practice course.
3. Write down your experiences of working in a group in the space provided.
4. Did you find the course of sufficient length for you to learn about how to conduct a group in the next semester? Yes or no. Please motivate your answer.
5. Describe the activities during the course.
6. Explain your experiences of learning with technology in the text below. 7. Indicate the type of assistance provided by the lecturer in the text box below.
8. Did the assessments in the course provide you with the opportunity to show your learning? Yes or no. Please motivate your answer.
9. You have been very helpful. Do you have any thoughts and feelings you would like to share about the meso practice course?
The responses were then coded using the steps discussed under section 4.5.2.3 and are not repeated under this subsection.
4.9.7 Individual interviews with students - June 2015