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Conducting a survey on Second Life


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Hi everyone I am a Graduate Student at the University of West Georgia studying Virtual behavior and I am looking for a way in which to conduct my survey in Second Life. Unfortunatley I have no funding at all from my Univeristy and I was curious if there are any free or low cost resources I can utilize to conduct my survey. 

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The most productive is to take your avi into SL and start making some friends---go ahead and declare in your profile that you are a student researcher.  When folks have had a chance to get to know you, you can pass them a note card with a link to psychdata (or whatever online service your university provides) along with preliminary informed consent information (general purpose of the study and such).

Google "Simon Evans" at the London School of Economics and read the methodology sections of his papers.

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What I can suggest you NOT do is come on the forums and say "Hi, I'm a student conducting a survey and please fill this out". Most of the forum dwellers will either berate you, say horrible things to you or ignore you completely...myself included.

If you are studying behavior, the best way is to get your avatar out there and exist inworld. Don't be shy...say hello, join some groups, meet people, make friends....

I do like the idea of putting something on your profile that you're a student looking for information, but that could turn people off right away. You need to let them know that you're also interested in meeting people and finding out about SL.

Good luck

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It seems much more efficient, straightforward, and honest to post a thread in the forums like a "Help Wanted" ad (don't spam it), to get what you're looking for and if you have straightforward questions rather than observing behavior. So, why do users dislike seeing them so much? I agree with the idea of "putting something on your profile that you're a student looking for information" but I do think that would turn others away much more than posting in the forums. People who across that person who's giving the survey will see that's all or most what he/she is looking for and feel like they're being used instead of actually having a real connection or would be left wondering if they take it that personal.

 

Other than that, is there THAT many threads relating to surveys that they take up whole pages of forums to make users detest them so much? If not, ignore it and if so make a section dedicated to it since it's not really spam

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JPG0809 wrote:

It seems much more efficient, straightforward, and honest to post a thread in the forums like a "Help Wanted" ad (don't spam it), to get what you're looking for and if you have straightforward questions rather than observing behavior. So, why do users dislike seeing them so much? I agree with the idea of "putting something on your profile that you're a student looking for information" but I do think that would turn others away much more than posting in the forums. People who across that person who's giving the survey will see that's all or most what he/she is looking for and feel like they're being used instead of actually having a real connection or would be left wondering if they take it that personal.

 

Other than that, is there THAT many threads relating to surveys that they take up whole pages of forums to make users detest them so much? If not, ignore it and if so make a section dedicated to it since it's not really spam

We've had a few threads discussing how people respond to Surveys.

For better or for worse Forums can be like small communities.  It gets to where the 'regulars' get to know each other.  Most of us are very helpful too.  We love to help people get their answers.  Sometimes to even the most ridiculously stupid questions. 

But when it comes to Surveys it is a whole other ball of wax.  When papers are coming due at the end of Semesters we can get inundated with them.  And 90% or more are ill conceived and poorly put together.  Many violate basic educational research ethics, ask questions that are in no way relevant to Second Life and/or in the case of multiple choice contain answers that in no way apply.

On a whole they show that the student spent their whole semester doing nothing.  So sometimes we get what you might describe as a little 'testy.'  We will point out to them that we are not here to do there homework (the background work they should have done first) for them.  From our point of view we are doing them a favor by this.

Overall I'd say I've only seen about a half dozen out of all the surveys that have been posted here that really demonstrated that the student had done their work. And I gladly answered those and a couple of times I even agreed to a personal meeting with the Student.

But if the Survey is full of errors, etc, etc, depending on my mood that day I may or may not say something.

I know I'm being a little tough here but that is kind of the facts of life for Forums in general.

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To the best of my recollection, which might be incorrect, it started a couple of years ago where in a few month period we were swamped with surveys repeatedly..one right after another. It got so bad that SL had to set up a whole new category for surveys (Second Life Education).

Pierre is correct that there were a few threads dedicated to why we don't fill out surveys and why we treat the students so badly...oddly enough, Phil started both of them about a year apart...:matte-motes-sunglasses-3:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Surveys/m-p/1922677/highlight/true#M98034

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussion-Forum/Survey-Threads/m-p/2735406/highlight/true#M182813

This, if you can get through all the pages, will give you some idea of how a lot of people in the forums feel about students who use us to "do their homework".

I would hope that the OP would read this as well. It will give him some annumintion for when he finally decides to put his questions out there for us.

 

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FWIW the animosity towards surveys is not unique to SL or this forum.  Certain populations become over-studied by well intended, but poorly prepared, researchers and those populations often become hostile to researchers generally.

Pierre does an excellent job of explaining the variety of problems with most of the "researchers" looking for survey responses.

There are folks who have done successful research in/about SL.  The two that I am familiar with have spent time in world understanding the environment and making friends who trust the researcher enough to participate and often help recruit more participants.  These folks have done good work. 

Those who pop up on message boards asking for survey participants rarely do work worthy of the time they are asking of participants. 

If you want good research, emulate those that have done good research.

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Tex Monday wrote:

To the best of my recollection, which might be incorrect, it started a couple of years ago where in a few month period we were swamped with surveys repeatedly..one right after another. It got so bad that SL had to set up a whole new category for surveys (Second Life Education).

Pierre is correct that there were a few threads dedicated to why we don't fill out surveys and why we treat the students so badly...oddly enough, Phil started both of them about a year apart...:matte-motes-sunglasses-3:

This, if you can get through all the pages, will give you some idea of how a lot of people in the forums feel about students who use us to "do their homework".

I would hope that the OP would read this as well. It will give him some annumintion for when he finally decides to put his questions out there for us.

 

Actually the timing for when this sub-forum started coincided more with when LL reinstated the discounts for non-profits and the annual Virtual Worlds Best Practices In Education conference.

Also the heading for this sub forum reads, "Discussions for educational organizations and educational use of Second Life."  Some people have claimed that the second phrase is a little vague but I really don't think it means, "you can do your homework here."

 

Oh, Tex and VR, my name is Perrie not Pierre.  I may make love like a French man, but alas, I am not French.  ;)

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First and foremost, IRB.  What's your name, what's your University (you did put that down), who's your prof, and contact info for that prof for the survey subject to be able to verify.  Without that, no go.  I can only speak for me, but that's my criteria to be met before involving myself in a request for a student survey. 

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Perrie Juran wrote:

Oh, Tex and VR, my name is
Perrie
not
Pierre
.  I may make love like a French man, but alas, I am not French. 
;)

I begin by apologizing for past erroneous spellings.

I continue by apologizing for the future spelling errors I am likely to make.  I will try to remember and do it correctly, but spelling has always been a bit of a challenge for me.

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  • 3 months later...

I realize I am a few months late in my response to this thread, but perhaps my response can offer some insights for others thinking of doing surveys well, anywhere!  To give you a little background, I myself am a PhD student.  However, I have my certification in program evaluation, and am frequently on research teams that collect and analyze data for a variety of education-related programs.  -I also mentor and am deeply involved in developing an online class for research methods in online spaces (due to teach in Summer 2015, if all goes well).

Surveys, unless they are open-ended, are best at collecting demographic data that describe your study population.  This information is primarily quantitative, and it's handy for being able to sample large populations very quickly (which, as I've read in this thread, is the reason why they get so abused).  Survey data is normally used to report on trends/theories that we already know exist, confirm/refute hypothesis, and again, are generally descriptive.

They are NOT, however, useful for collecting emergent data, or for describing complex situations, like behavior.  In these cases, and as people have pointed out already, you need a qualitative approach for this - observations, field notes, and interviews tend to be standard fare for a qualitative approach.

Also, in order to study anything on virtual behavior, you really need to:

  1. Identify your population that you want to study - there are SO MANY communities in Second Life, and behavior is based on context.
  2. Fill out an RSRB (or you may know it as an IRB).  The language is VERY strong about doing any kind of research on minors, and for a virtual study, you must address this specifically in your proposal.  Now, if you're doing a study for a class (as people have said, to complete a homework assignment), it isn't necessary, since the data may ONLY be used for a class project and it is not reported outside of that scope.  HOWEVER, in my opinion, even if an RSRB is not necessary, it is the researcher's responsibility to be ethical, confidential, and of course, do no harm.  
  3. Make sure you have a good set of research questions first.  What are you trying to find out???  Your questions guide your methodology!  If you're trying to describe the demographics of a population, than a survey works.  But if you're trying to study behavior, I don't think a survey is really going to help you deeply understand what's happening.  
  4. If you are not sure what your research questions are?  Than you really HAVE to start with an ethnographic study - rule of thumb: A MINIMUM of 3 one-hour observations, complete with field notes and transcriptions, followed by coding and categories to identify threads, before doing a little research to identify theories.  You have to know what's out there, and what you want to study first.  Surveys become little more than fluff if you don't understand a bit about your population.
  5. If you DO decide to do a survey, than at that point, you SHOULD know enough about the population and have developed a rapport with them such that you won't even need to worry about reaching your participants.  ie.  They will understand why you are there, what you're doing, for what reasons.  Your survey questions should be vetted out to at least one or two people so that they can give you input (never use a survey question that isn't useful to your study - it wastes peoples' time and pisses them off).  In terms of resources, my favorite survey tool is Google Forms, which is free, and it gives you similar graphical stats like Survey Monkey.  Plus, you can upload it onto a spreadsheet or SPSS.
  6. Lastly, please don't be a parasite.  That's why people have such a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to grad students and researchers.  If you're going to study a community, figure out how you're going to give back!  For example, can the people that own the sim get feedback and useful data to help them?  Can you help them manage the sim?  Perhaps write up stuff for them, or make a website for them?  Research should be reciprocal, and researchers should give back to their participants as much as participants give to them (if possible).  For example, I am setting up a pilot study for a community here in Second Life. In order to give back, I develop talks for them on a weekly basis to help attract more people to their venue and bring up their traffic.  By doing that?  I get to help them as much as they help me. ^.^

This is probably a lot more than you were asking for.  However, I think it's important for any researcher studying virtual worlds to know.

 

Some references to help you: 

 Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C., & Taylor, T. L. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of method. Princeton University Press.

Kozinets, R.V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online.  Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications

Orgad, S. (2009). Question two: How can researchers make sense of the issues involved in collecting and interpreting online and offline data?  In:A. Markham and N. Bayme (Eds).  Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method (pp. 33-53).  New York: Sage Publications.

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