CADAS CAWI
Intended for web-based interviewing using distribution of links and integration with web services and respondent panels.
Functionality
The CADAS system includes all elements necessary for Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI), including organizational, methodological, monitoring and IT components.
Questionnaires are designed in a graphical interface. This relieves the researcher from having to deal with technical issues, which are not content-related. The system enables preparing the content of a survey, validating questionnaires, and checking the progress in real time. Since partial results are available from the moment the first questionnaire has been completed, it is possible to conduct a preliminary analysis of the data and quickly make necessary changes.
A designed questionnaire supports the most popular web browsers on the market: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera.
At the end of an interview, the respondent can display all the responses and print out the questionnaire!
Networks often have problems connecting to the Internet. This is not a problem in our system. Once connected, the respondent can continue completing the questionnaire from the point it was interrupted.
Using an attached respondent database, it is also possible to organize a mailing campaign inviting to a web questionnaire.
All content consultants can quickly and easily test the correctness of the content and logic of the questionnaire and quickly apply patches when necessary.
The system provides access to surveys and their components that have been made available to the customer for approval, and allows making changes to questions as well as adding comments. The online result presentation module provides access to partial results during a survey. Communication with researchers is possible in the project group work mode.
The customer can review the progress of the survey and test the questionnaire at any time. Advanced multimedia features for presenting auxiliary materials make surveys more attractive and credible.
Survey content is developed with an intuitive, object-oriented interface for creating questionnaires which uses all elements available to web designers. A powerful scripting language allows using attached files, databases and external programming languages. The implemented “Virtual Interviewer” mode allows the verification of routing and the validation of the resulting set, before testers and proofreaders are involved.
The organization of the scripter's working environment allows applying quick corrections, even during a survey, without having to pause the execution.
The stratification can be translated into the allocation of specific cells or their parts to specific interviewers or teams. All quota parameters can be freely modified as the CAWI survey progresses.
The platform is supported by an extensive database management system, which includes:
- Options for attaching files with contact details;
- Options for accessing the data and presenting them to interviewers;
- An advanced system for viewing and monitoring the use of contact details, including lists and reports;
- A quota control system which allows building and managing automatically even the most complex quotas.
The research project administrator's work is supported by a fully automated workflow. It consists of:
- Transfers between workstations (participants' computers) and the server;
- Transfers among research servers if the project is carried out by many teams;
- Archiving research projects;
- Generating resulting sets in the selected output format.
The administrator can monitor the work of all users as well as profile their tasks and tools available to them. This enables real-time supervision of a research project.
The platform supports the processing of results by the coding module. It includes such elements as:
- Coding of text records for open-ended and semi-open-ended questions;
- Recoding;
- Coding according to multi-level categorizations;
- Easy attaching of coded data to the result database;
- Remote coding by researchers or other users;
It is possible to create, export and import coding templates, and the system automatically recognizes questions that can be coded. All coded questions are automatically made available in the export options.
The resulting data can be easily transferred to the preferred statistical package standard such as SPSS or Quantum, and extended export options allow the accurate specification of the location, format and manner of representation for each question. For surveys organized in waves, the system automatically adjusts the export structure to the previous wave and shows the differences.
Complete resulting data is already available as the last interview is completed. At the same time, thanks to the advanced result reporting and monitoring system, the statistician can rely on the quality of gathered information more than ever before.
Using a web-based platform has many advantages. The system also provides full security of the stored data with encrypted access to applications on the Internet and double encryption of the data on the server. The tool can be thoroughly tested before the data collection process begins to validate the survey, prepare the participants and prepare procedures for further data processing.
Immediately after entering the first CAWI data, the system allows access to the partial results for analysis, processing or performance monitoring and the implementation of any changes. The customer can access the results via the Internet using a key and login credentials and with a result viewer that allows a full analysis, recalculation, listing and charting.
All users can perform their work directly on the common database using software components integrated in a single system. The system parameters can be tailored to the specific needs and habits of co-operating teams.
Connections to the platform are encrypted with a 1024-bit key and each successful and unsuccessful access attempt is logged in the database. Even authorized requests for changing the contact database or exporting the results are logged. In order to minimize unauthorized access to data stored in the system, each user working on the CADAS system has access only to selected modules of the platform. With such solutions, CADAS protects results and contact databases from unauthorized access.
The advantage of the CADAS system is a flexible and open architecture that allows gradual extending and upgrading with additional features tailored for the needs of specific customers.
Since CAWI questionnaires are completed by web users themselves, the task has been optimized for user experience. The CADAS system enables creating interesting and graphically rich questionnaires that can be quickly completed. This is achieved with a full range of tools available to all professional web designers.
At the same time, the contact and user data management system allows full control over the sampling frame of people willing to participate in web-based surveys. Participation in a survey does not involve any additional tasks, such as downloading and installing applications or browser plug-ins. CAWI questionnaires work perfectly on every Internet-enabled machine.