Evaluation of Student Facing Web-Based Services: Studyit (Nielsen/NetRatings)

Methods

Phase 2 – Quantitative Online Survey

Quantitative research using an online survey was administered via a site-intercept invitation among a random sample of visitors to the Studyit website. Users who wished to participate in the survey did so at the end of their visit to the site, so as not to disrupt or interrupt their experience on the site. Further details include:

• Data was collected between 9 May and 1 August 2006
• 506 surveys were completed in total
• Average completion time was 9.6 minutes for students and 5.7 minutes for adults
• A 2% completion rate was achieved to date for the survey
  

Sample Composition

In total, 506 website visitors completed the survey, of which 74.1% were students, 16% teachers and 7% parents / guardians.

The table overleaf highlights the age breakdown by type of respondent.  The majority of student users are aged between 16 and 19 years (close to 80%), which is the key target age for the service; while one in five are between 10 and 15 years of age and very few are aged 20 or above.

	Student 74.1%	Teacher 16.2%	Guardian/Parent of a school student 6.5%	Tutor1.6%	Other Supervising Adult 1.6%
10 - 15	20.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
16 - 19	78.9%	0.0%	0.0%	12.5%	25.0%
20 or older	1.1%	100.0%	100.0%	87.5%	75.0%

There are more female students in the sample than males; 254 of the 375 student respondents are females (67.7%) versus 121 males (32.3%). While this does provide evidence of more use of the site among females than males, it should also be noted that females are typically more likely to respond to surveys so this skew is likely over emphasised.

Across all ages of student, a similar gender breakdown is evident, as seen in the chart below:

Further information relating to the profile of student website visitors can be found within the Section, ‘Service Reach’.