Online Research in ELTMartin Sketchley9 November 2013English UK Teachers’ Conference

Today’s Talk

•Developing online research

•The advantages of online surveys

•Application of technology with research

•Sharing online surveys via Web 2.0

applications

•Conducting and sharing the research

•Any questions

Techniques of Research

•There are numerous applications of research including:▫Classroom observations

▫Case studies

▫Interviews

▫Surveys & questionnaires

•Today’s talk will focus on the development of surveys and questionnaires with online tools

Why Online Surveys?

•The advantages of online surveys:▫Participants can remain anonymous▫Wider participation from around the world▫Easier to read digital text than handwriting

or scribbling▫Online surveys can be embedded into blogs

or other websites▫Research results are ready to be analysed

in a digital format▫You save a lot of trees!

What Online Surveys?•Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com):

provides a free basic version but more advanced features cost

•Key Survey (www.keysurvey.co.uk): offers a free 30 day trial period but then you have to pay your hard-earned money

•Google Drive (www.drive.google.com): it is free and you can create quite complicated surveys with multiple pages for no charge

How To Create Surveys

•We will be looking at Google Drive for the

creation of online surveys:

▫It is free to use

▫It can be shared with other researchers or

participants via email or other free blogging tools

▫You can tweet a link

▫It is very simple and the website is a breeze to use

Google Drive: Logging On

•Log on or subscribe for your Google Drive account (www.drive.google.com)

Creating A Survey File

•Sign-in to Google Drive, Sign in to Google Drive and click on ‘Create’, then click on ‘Form’.

•Forms are the main file to create surveys and questionnaires.

Naming Your Survey

Writing Questions

•It is intuitive to write survey questions in Google Drive.

•You can create open and/or closed questions.

•Keep your questions simple:▫Avoid ambiguity▫Avoid acronyms▫Avoid leading questions

•What is the difference between ‘open questions’ and ‘closed questions’?

Different Question Types

•In Google Drive you can create different question types. These can include:▫Text▫Paragraph text▫Multiple choice▫Choose from a list▫Scale▫Grid▫Date▫Time

Example Survey Question

Travelling Surveys•When participants complete a survey, you can

choose a destination - within Google Drive - to receive responses to view and crunch the data.

Selecting Participants

•Think about the following questions to help you:▫How many people do I need to survey?▫How large should my sample be?▫Who shall my sample consist of?(Dörnyei, 2010)

•When dealing with Web 2.0 tools, there will be potential for randomised samples or a greater possibility of snowballed sampling.

Sharing Live Surveys

•You can share surveys by using various Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Facebook or your own blog (if you have one).

•Get the live URL of the survey and distribute via Twitter or Facebook.

•Try to target a related group who will be your target participant.

•Look at related Facebook Groups or get others to share your survey.

Embedding Online Surveys• With Google Drive surveys, you

can embed these within blogs (Blogger or WordPress).

• Click on “File” and choose “Embed…” and you will get:

Downloading Research Results

•It is quite easy to download and analyse the research results from Google Drive. All it takes is a couple of clicks

•You can download the responses in Excel format for data analysis and data crunching

Additional Reading on ELT Research

•“Teacher Research in Language Teaching: A Critical Analysis” (Simon Borg, 2013)

•“Research Methods in Language Learning” (David Nunan, 1992)

•“Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Construction, Administration, and Processing” (Zoltán Dörnyei, 2010)

Google Drive Surveys: Video

•YouTube videos available so that you can learn how to create online surveys. It is available via: …

•The accompanied hand out is also available via my blog if you want an electronic copy: www.eltexperiences.com

•Contact me if you want an electronic copy:

martinsketchley@gmail.com

Any Questions?

Contact Details:•martinsketchley@gmail.com

•www.eltexperiences.com

•www.twitter.com/ELTExperiences