Oci-One Kanubi ) writes:
I'd recommend you ask yer tutor about course offerings in research
methodology. The so-called "survey" you present offers nothing in the
way of scientific rigor.

...

Everything written in that posting was true. However informal surveys are
still useful. Early in a formal research process there is a need for
information to define the scope and measureable aspects of the study, ie
to formulate one or more hypothese to be formally tested. Various informal
methods are used such as researching what has been done before,
interviews, focus groups, and surveys.

I once summarized the content of a survey of conference attendees.
It consisted of a form voluntarily completed. The form had rated
responses as well as areas for comments. Summarizing the comments
required some inferences on my part to come up with statements
such as "x out of y respondents liked the conference". The
information gathered was usefull to the conference planners.

We are all now problably used to student course evaluations, something
that became popular during the student activist days of the 1960's. They
are the same sort of thing as the conference survey. Its pretty obvious
that if a large proportion of the students in any course failed that would
influence the responses. In spite of the bias the information is still
usefull.

I don't know what the purpose of the current survey is but it
should not be discarded because it is not formulated as a
scientific (statistical) test of an experimental hypothesis. Its
up to the researcher to interpret the responses appropriately.
All scientific publications referee (review) before publication
and return papers to the submitter for clarification or correction.
Its not easy to have research results published. I don't know how easy it
is to get some grants. It may not be a very formal process in some cases.

Fill out the questionnaire if you want to, or make fun of it which at
least gets some entertainment value for the grant money.
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