SYNCHRONOUS TECHNOLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION OF DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS: AN ERGONOMIC METHOD FOR GROUP ADMINISTRATION

ABSTRACT

Questionnaires administered manually can cause surreptitious peer pressure on the candidate to finish when ‘the others’ have completed theirs, forcing students to rush or skip individual items or may hinder the ability of noticing participants who may be having in difficulty understanding certain items. These drawbacks can have serious consequences on the results of the study. With the use of the new Synchronous Technological Administration Method (STAM), each item with the possible response alternatives is presented on a PowerPoint slide to the group and the administrator waits until all the respondents mark their choice on the optic form. The Revised Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire was administered to 1145 undergraduate students using the STAM proved to be beneficial in many ways.  The percentage of missing data decreased immensely dropping from 21.4% to 2–5%, and the reliability of the whole instrument significantly increased. In addition, paper wastage was diminished and the use of the optic form eliminated hours of tedious plugging in of data which eliminated errors that were likely to occur with manual plugging.