Don A. Dillman will present a lively morning short course on one of the most perplexing challenges now facing designers of surveys. The collection of survey data by multiple modes is encouraged by declines in response rates, poorer coverage for traditional sample frames, and the decline in people's willingness to provide contact information for particular modes. However, the use of more than one mode in a single survey faces a gauntlet of problems that result in different modes producing different answers to many questions. Examples include the fact that different modes encourage questions to be structured in different ways and the existence of substantial evidence that aural (telephone) vs. visual (web and mail) communication encourages the providing of different answers. This short course covers all of these issues and more. It links available research to the making of practical decisions that are now being faced by survey organizations throughout the world on whether to mix or not mix survey modes. Some of his conclusions and recommendations are likely to surprise you.

About the Instructor

Don Dillman is Regents Professor and the Thomas S. Foley Professor of Government and Public Policy at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. Throughout his career he has worked with all of the major survey modes (in-person, telephone, mail, IVR and the Internet), and has conducted mixed-mode surveys that involved each of these modes. From 1991-1995 he was the Senior Survey Methodologist at the U.S. Bureau of the Census where he provided leadership for developing more effective data collection procedures for the 2000 Census. Since then he has maintained an active research program emphasizing learning how visual design and layout influence answers to survey questions. More recently, he has begun a systematic research effort to learn how to use addressed-based sampling to contact general public samples and obtain responses over the Internet. The ideas presented in this short course are based on his most recent research, as well as on two new books: International Handbook of Survey Methodology (edited with Edith de Leeuw and Joop Hox and released in January, 2008), and, the third edition of his TDM book, now titled, Internet, Mail and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method (coauthored with Jolene Smyth and Leah Christian) that will appear in print later this year.