I am part of a group of individuals that are looking to carry out a detailed and wide ranging study into people’s responses to the latest best of 1 eliminations system. We will be carrying out surveys every couple of months to collect opinions. We will then use this data to see how people’s opinions develop as they experience BO1 more and as they become accustomed to the system.
As a preliminary investigation we would ask that you fill in this short survey, this is very short and it should take only a couple of minutes. We ask that you share this survey around as much as possible to other teams, teammates etc. The more responses the better. Responses will be accepted until 31st August. After this there will be a different survey.
And for those moaning that this is just another pointless BO1 survey:
To collect the best data possible we are not asking just simple yes or no questions. We are instead using a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. We feel that this makes it easier for people to express their opinion accurately and it also better shows the distribution of opinions from one extreme to the other.
We will also be looking for representatives to conduct future surveys at competitions that they attend. This will help the survey reach more teams and widen our sample size. If you would like to apply to be a representative for the project please fill in this form here. Representatives can be anyone, mentor, student or event partner. They will need to be regularly attending competitions in their region and be prepared to ask teams the questions in the survey and be able to fill the survey out on their behalf using a smartphone, tablet or computer. Accepted representatives will be notified by the end of August.
The full results for this preliminary survey will be announced at the end of August/start of September. We will attempt to publish every response we receive as well as process, interpret and present the data accordingly.
It should also be noted that we have all accepted that BO1 is here to stay. This project is to look at the long term response to best of 1 eliminations across the entire VEX community. We want this to be the most in depth study done into people’s reactions to BO1 and how opinions change over time. If anyone would like to contribute to project please let us know, we want as much community involvement as possible.
The questions for the survey were chosen by a small group of people, we felt they were appropriate, useful and clear. In future we will consider your suggestion and if anyone feels they have a potential question to be asked in a future survey please feel free to post it here or send me a PM.
As @callen mentioned I did ask for the community to contribute and I would appreciate it if people can keep this thread relevant and constructive.
I was a bit terse, my apologies, getting dinner out for the family.
So, improvements is to recognize there are more roles than competitor, mentor, and EP. I would broaden the perspective to include teachers, administrators, referees, event staff (field managers, TM Operation), even RECF RSM… I would include a text form to include comments.
I think the questions tend to be biased in any survey, so getting multiple dimensions is desirable - for example, BO1 may be good for having a less open ended schedule - so asking questions about “Is having a clear schedule for end of event important to you?” - also, do you value having more teams in elimination rounds?
There are so many possibilities, hence why I still think asking what are the important questions to have before releasing yet another survey would be import.
On the note of page 2 - I really dislike having a second page for survey. Keep it one page and as simple as possible.
Crafting good surveys is amazingly difficult - when I was doing surveys for my research, I consulted with the pros at the Boston Globe - it was really beneficial.
I agree, but it this survey was supposed to be short to get the most number of participants as possible. The surveys will most likely get more complex as time goes.
If you want to reach the most people, then it has to be pretty broad representing the various facets of the VRC global community… if you want fast and short, then narrow the audience a bit - ie, just competitors, and be brief.
You may have to watch out. For example, let’s say you later expand our list from competitors/mentors/EP’s. Then you might have some who chose the best one of those and later choose a new one. This wouldn’t matter so much for a single-shot survey. But for a longitudinal survey it becomes problematic because now you can’t really say for sure that you’re comparing the same group against itself later. This is an example of why the questions aren’t usually changed in such ways in a longitudinal survey.
Overall, this is one of the better surveys I’ve seen or heard about, and you seem to have a more clear plan vis-a-vis analysis going into it than some others. @lacsap has made some good suggestions.
