Help Requested with Attitudes to Inland Waterways Survey

[5thHorseman]

Done

[Scholar Gypsy]

_{Done - and I would reinforce the points above about us not being a random sample of the population!}

 

 

_{Here's a nice example of why this matters, from 1936 - which persuaded people that Gallup did know what they were doing.}

_{A sample of 2.4 million by Literary Digest predicted Alfred Landon (Republican) would get 57% of the vote vs Roosevelt (Democrat) in the 1936 US Presidential election. In reality he got 38%. A far smaller (50,000) Gallup poll predicted the result. The error was due to selection bias – the LD sample was drawn from phone records and club memberships - in 1936 this only covered middle and upper class members of the population, more likely to vote Republican.}

[John V]

done

[StarUKKiwi]

Done and shared on FB, good luck

[Dave_P]

I've done it but I'm concerned that you'll get highly skewed and therefore meaningless results. The questions clearly imply that this survey is meant for the general population, but by canvassing opinion on a canal boating website, you're going to get a disproportionate number of canal enthusiasts responding. This could be balanced with a couple of opening questions about the respondent's personal situation - such as "do you own a boat" or "do you live on a boat". I suspect that the results of this survey will indicate that people think canals are both wonderful and important but that will simply reflect that you've asked a specific group who hold that view.

 

Edit: just noticed that this point has been made by previous posters. John, your son must make reference to this issue in his dissertation as a potential limitation in the results.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Dave_P

[Little Else]

Done.

[StarUKKiwi]

Just to let your son know that three of my non canal friends have completed the survey

[Allan(nb Albert)]

 

And frighteningly enough I believe this was pretty much the perception of one of the lead civil servants at DEFRA responsible for funding British Waterways, as was. Inland Waterways Branch themselves were much more clued up, but they weren't the ones deciding on how much money BW got. We have a lot of work to do in changing perceptions, where "we" includes both users and CRT.

 

(Oh, and - done.)

Name?

[isatis]

done

[Richard Fairhurst]

I forget, I'm afraid, Allan, but it was a good few years ago.

[Jay4424]

Done, supprised not to see a question "Do you own a boat" "do you live on the canal" though

 

 

edit: sorry, see its been asked before!

Edited January 5, 2015 by Jay4424

[Mrs Tawny Owl]

Done,

 

To be honest I'd avoided this topic as on a very quick read of the title I though it was going to be another response to a questionnaire put up by CART, or NBW, and would deteriorate into polarised views.

 

Glad it isn't and happy to help.

 

Just because this is a canal forum his Dad has access to doesn't mean the survey hasn't been shared in non canal places, so the statement that the results will be skewed by asking us may not be true, he may have already considered this and taken steps to make it more balanced. (or not)

 

Good luck with the dissertation, I remember the stress my son went through, and my absolute horror in finding him proudly saying the work was on "this" memory stick which he produced from his pocket, but no it wasn't on his laptop as well.

That memory stick was loaded onto the home pc before he'd even finished speaking I just couldn't face the moaning, even at a distance if he'd had to start again.

 

Sue

[bohica]

Completed

[Alan&sue]

Done definatly only takes seconds good luck

[Dharl]

Done

[john6767]

I am just resurrecting this thread to add a thank you from Tom to all of those the responded to his survey. He had around 500 responses in total, perhaps half of those attributable to the forum.

 

We had the pleasure of attending his graduation in Aberystwyth last Friday, so now all he needs to do now is find a job.

[Beaker]

I am just resurrecting this thread to add a thank you from Tom to all of those the responded to his survey. He had around 500 responses in total, perhaps half of those attributable to the forum.

 

We had the pleasure of attending his graduation in Aberystwyth last Friday, so now all he needs to do now is find a job.

 

[DHutch]

Sounds good to me.