Bristol Online Survey (BOS) and Dissertation Research

Elaine Watson

Well, here I am once again talking about Online Surveys!

The reason I want to talk about them now is that it is the time of year when MSc and third year undergraduate students are considering dissertation options and which methods can be used to collect data.   

Bristol online survey (BOS) is a great way to collect data, for many reasons, here is a quick summary:

• You can target specific groups who you want to capture data from, alternatively, the survey can be targeted to a wide ranging audience
• Question types can be created to suit qualitative or quantitative research methods 
• Online tests can be embedded into the surveys 
• Survey data can export into SPSS for analysis 
• The software is reasonably easy to use, especially when you have support from one of the Psychology Technicians: myself, Elaine Watson and Garryck Holmes 
• The technicians offer support and advice during the building of the survey, ensuring the survey you create meets BPS guidelines 
• It is a secure survey provider supported by the University of Cumbria

Have I sold it to you yet? Are you ready to ditch the paper questionnaire yet?  Hang on…there is more to tell.

There are always downsides and it would be wrong not to mention them in this blog post. In my experience of using BOS the more you use it the easier it becomes; you start thinking the way that BOS thinks, or rather works!  Until you have spent hours using the software and worked out how the programme works, you are at the mercy of it’s quirks and pitfalls.  Despite having a huge help library these are some of the many problems I have come across:

• How does routing work? 
• I have routed from one question on a page and want to route from another question, now BOS won’t let me do it? 
• Which question type should I use for a Likert scale? 
• How do you export into SPSS? What does it look like in SPSS? 
• I have just tabbed back to a previous page and now I have lost the question I have just spent 20 minutes inputting?

All the downsides can be avoided if you take up the offer of support and guidance from either Garryck or myself. We have put in the hours of getting to know BOS like an old friend and discovering its quirks and foibles, so once you have made the decision to use BOS to collect data don’t waste any time in making an appointment to come and meet with us to make a start.

To find out more about BOS come along to one of the Psychology Drop in Sessions, held every Monday and Tuesday 11-12am in SKG or email psychology-tsu@cumbria.ac.uk