Computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) is an Internet surveying technique in which the interviewee follows a script provided in a website.
There are many factors in designing an online questionnaire; guidelines, available question formats, administration, quality and ethic issues should be reviewed.
A few of the advantages and disadvantages of this method have been summarized below:[1][2] An online questionnaire needs to be carefully thought through before it is launched.
In an online survey, textboxes are provided with the question prompt in order for respondents to type in their answer.
Open-ended questions seek a free response and aim to determine what is at the tip of the respondent's mind.
These are good to use when asking for attitude or feelings, likes and dislikes, memory recall, opinions, or additional comments.
Response rates are frequently quite low[citation needed] and there is a danger that they will continue to drop due to over-surveying of web-users.
Jon Krosnick argues that the following three factors determine the successfulness of the questionnaire and the likelihood of achieving decent levels of response.
[14] The questionnaire may need to be administered in a secluded environment to protect sensitive information provided by the participant.
[3][4] Conciseness can be achieved through removing redundant and irrelevant questions, which can add frustration to the participant, but not value to the research.
[8] Finally, placing questions in a logical sequence also gives the participants a better mental map as they are filling out the questionnaire.