Virtual Surveys and Information Gathering
One of the more promising instructional uses of the Internet is
the "virtual survey" - an on-line information gathering tool.
These tools use Web-based forms and CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
programming to produce highly interactive submission and retrieval
of information. Upon visiting one of these sites, the user is
confronted with a fill-in-the-blank form that seeks his ideas,
views, or opinions on the topic under consideration. The user's
responses then are posted to a database. Ultimately, these
responses and those of others can be retrieved and compared.
These on-line surveys take two forms: (1) simple information
gathering - the posting of responses to a database and the
retrieval of these and other responses from the database without
any analysis of the data and (2) response comparisons - which
seek to analyze the meaning of responses in comparison with the
collected responses in the database or some established
criteria.
It is important to note that these on-line surveys are not
scientific studies based on random sampling or standard
statistical procedures. Nevertheless, these sites provide
a quick, easy way to compare the ideas and values of the
student with those of a larger group of respondents. Visit
the sites listed below for examples of on-line surveys and
information gathering.
Examples:
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