Course: ELEMENTARY STATISTIC AND PROBABILITY
Topic: INTRODUCTION OF DATA COLLECTION AND METHODS / TECHNIQUES
OF DATA COLLECTION
DATA
➢ Data is various kinds of information formatted in a particular way.
➢ Is a collection of facts such as numbers, word, measurements, observation or just
description of things.
DATA COLLECTION
➢ Is the process of gathering, measuring, and analyzing accurate data from a variety of
relevant sources to find answers to research problems, answer questions, evaluate
outcomes, and forecast trends and probabilities.
Two General/Sources of Data
Primary Source of Data Collection
➢ As the name implies, this is original, first-hand data collected by the data researcher.
This process is the initial information gathering step, performed before anyone carries
out any further or related research. Primary data results are highly accurate provided
the researcher collects the information. However, potentially time-consuming and
expensive.
Methods on primary data collection
• Interviews
➢ The researcher asks questions of a large sampling of people, either by direct
interviews or means of mass communication such as by phone or email. This
method is by far the most common means of the data gathering.
• Focus Group
➢ Focus group, like interviews are a commonly used technique. The group
consists of anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen people, led by a moderator,
brought together to discuss the issue.
• Questionnaire
➢ Are a simple straight forward data collection method. Respondents get a series
questions, either open or close-ended, related to the matter at hand.
Secondary Data Collection
➢ Unlike primary data collection, there are no specific collection methods. Instead, since
the information has already been collected, the researcher consults various data sources
such as:
• Journal articles
• Websites
• Full-blown research proper
• Government publications
• Books
• Internal record
➢ It is a second-hand data which is based in tried and tested data which is previously
analyzed, filtered and already available.
Two Categories for Primary Data Collection Methods
Qualitative Methods
➢ It is the process of collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video or
audio) to understand concepts, opinion or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth
insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research.
Quantitative Methods
➢ Refers to the collection of numerical data that can be analyzed using statistical method.
➢ This type of data collection is often used in surveys, experiment and other research
methods.
➢ It measures variables and establish relationships between variables.
➢ The data collection through quantitative methods is typically in the form of numbers,
such as response frequencies, means, and standard deviation, and can be analyzed using
statistical software.
➢ It answered the “what and who” questions rather than “why”.
Methods for Quantitative Data Collection
1. Surveys/Questionnaires
➢ Defined as objectives or closed-ended questions used to gain detailed insights
from respondents about a certain research topic. These questions form the core
of a survey and are used to gather numerical data to determine statistical results.
a. Online Survey
• Are quick and easy to saved out, either via email or messenger.
They can also appear in pop-ups on websites or via a link
embedded is social media. From the participants point of view,
online surveys are convenient to complete and submit, using
whichever device they prefer (mobile phone, tablet, or
computer). Anonymity is also a plus point: online survey
software ensures respondents identities are kept confidential.
Some software/applications used for online survey
• Google Forms - is one of the best free survey tools that lets you
put together surveys quickly and easily via their convenient
drag & drop interface. You can customize the design of the
surveys.
• SurveyMonkey - One of the well-known online survey
tools, SurveyMonkey provides its users with 15 diverse types of
survey questions including Likert scales and open comments.
SurveyMonkey has features that aides you to collect data online
as well as offline through mobile devices. This survey creator
also has features that would enable you to generate reports,
analyze and backup survey data. However, it lacks a feature that
makes it less suitable for measuring overall satisfaction or re-
surveying customers after an interval.
• QuestionPro - helps you create efficient surveys, polls, and
quizzes within minutes. The shareable, robust analytical reports
make it a great tool for business enterprises.
• Jotform - is one of the leading creative online form builder
apps known by its intuitiveness and ease of use. With fairly
decent analytics and integrations, JotForm combines powerful
features in its online form.
• Amazon MTurk – Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a
crowdsourcing marketplace that makes it easier for individuals
and businesses to outsource their processes and jobs to a
distributed workforce who can perform these tasks virtually.
This could include anything from conducting simple data
validation and research to more subjective tasks like survey
participation, content moderation, and more. MTurk enables
companies to harness the collective intelligence, skills, and
insights from a global workforce to streamline business
processes, augment data collection and analysis, and accelerate
machine learning development.
• SurveyGizmo – An easy-to-use survey tool, that is what
SurveyGizmo is. It also comes with pretty good automation
capabilities, such as piping answers to new questions, sending
emails/notifications based on responses, and such. In addition, it
provides a wide variety of question types and filtering options
in order to ensure the proper questions are being asked.
• Qualtrics – A powerful Online Survey App, Qualtrics pushes
the limitations of traditional surveys. Qualtrics offers around
100+ types of questions, various ready-made survey templates.
They don’t stop with that, they have enabled features such as
logic branching, email triggers and display logic for a pleasant
experience. You can also choose from over 30 different graph
types and export results to CSV or SPSS in their real-time web
reports.
• Google Consumer Surveys – is useful for getting a clearer
picture of people’s opinions and perspectives to back up your
story. You can create a survey on any topic and put it in front of
people in real time.
b. Offline Survey
• While online surveys are by far the most common way to collect
quantitative data in today’s modern age, there are still some
harder to reach respondents where other mediums can be
beneficial; for example, those who aren’t tech-survey or who
don’t have stable internet connection. The anonymity of the
respondents is still potential.
Some Methods of offline survey
• In-person Paper-pencil survey - It represents a process of
personal interviewing where the pollster holds a printed-out
questionnaire, reads the question to the respondent and fills the
answers into the questionnaire.
• Mail survey - are often described to be straightforward,
comprehensible, and having few open-end questions. Compared
with telephone surveys, the cost in conducting a mail survey is
typically lower. To make the most out of it, mail surveys should
be used when the researcher wishes to know if there are changes
on the product or service that the consumer would want, the
consumers’ opinion regarding the company’s eventual plans, or
time-sensitive matters.
2. Interviews
➢ Interviews are another popular way of researching polling a population. They
can be thought as a survey but in verbal, in-person or virtual face-to-face format.
The online format of interviews is becoming more popular nowadays, as it is
cheaper and logistically easier to organize them face-to-face interviews, yet still
allows the interviewer to see the respondent.
➢ An interviewer runs through a survey with the respondents, asking mainly
closed-ended questions (yes or no, multiple choice questions, or questions with
rating scale) that ask how strongly the respondents agrees with the statements.
➢ The advantage of structured interviews is that the interviewer can pace the
survey, making sure the respondents give enough consideration to each
question.
Methods/techniques interview of data collection method
Face -to -face interviews have a distinct advantage of enabling the researcher to
establish rapport with potential participants and therefor gain their cooperation.
These interviews yield highest response rates in survey research. They also allow
the researcher to clarify ambiguous answers and when appropriate, seek follow-up
information. Disadvantages include impractical when large samples are involved
time consuming and expensive. (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001)
Telephone interviews are less time consuming and less expensive and the
researcher has ready access to anyone on the planet who has a telephone.
Disadvantages are that the response rate is not as high as the face-to- face interview
but considerably higher than the mailed questionnaire. The sample may be biased
to the extent that people without phones are part of the population about whom the
researcher wants to draw inferences.
Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI): is a form of personal
interviewing, but instead of completing a questionnaire, the interviewer brings
along a laptop or hand-held computer to enter the information directly into the
database. This method saves time involved in processing the data, as well as saving
the interviewer from carrying around hundreds of questionnaires. However, this
type of data collection method can be expensive to set up and requires that
interviewers have computer and typing skills.
3. Observation
➢ Is a technique that focuses on recording the number or types of people who do
a certain action such as choosing a specific product from a grocery shelf,
speaking to a company representative at an event, or how many people pass
through a certain are within a given time frame.
➢ Observation studies in quantitative research are similar in nature to a qualitative
ethnographic study (in which a researcher also observes consumers in their
natural habitats), yet observation studies for quantitative research remain
focused on the numbers – how many people do an action, how many of a
products consumer pick up etc.
4. Review Existing Documents
➢ Reviewing existing research to see how it can contribute to understanding a new
issue in question.
➢ There are numerous documents that can be analyzed to support primary data, or
used as an end in themselves. Secondary data collection can include reviewing
public records, governments research, company data bases, existing reports,
paid for research publication, magazines, journals, case studies, websites, and
more.
➢ Aside from using secondary research alone, document review can also be used
in anticipation of primary research, to understand which knowledge gaps need
to be filled and to nail down the issues that might be important to explore in a
primary research study.
Why data collection is necessary / important?
➢ Data collection plays a significant asset in any research study. Research work caried
can vary from field to field but all the research work based on data which is analyzed
and interrupted to get information. Data is one of the vital resources for all research
since it drawn conclusions based on the results of statistical analysis. The quality of
data collection methods improved the accuracy or validity of study outcomes or
findings.
References
simplilearn. (2023, January 24). What Is Data Collection: Methods, Types, Tools, and
Techniques. [Link]://[Link]/what-is-data-collection-
article
DataCollection. (n.d.).
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(2022, December 16). Data Collection Methods. Jotform. [Link]
collection-methods/
Bhat, A. (2023, February 3). Data Collection Methods: Sources & Examples. QuestionPro.
[Link]
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. (n.d.).
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