Online research is a method in which all of the data collection and analysis is done by using the internet. Before conducting online research, let's have a look at its different aspects.
Why is Conducting Online Research Important?
The demand for conducting online research is increasing day by day. With the help of online research, you can check the contribution of anything in a particular field. It is the best way to learn about many interesting facts. Also, you do not have to follow a particular niche for conducting online research. Online research has equal worth for professional as well as non-professional researches.
Types Of Online Research
Here are some types of online research as discussed below:
Customer Satisfaction Research
In the past, customer reviews were noted by calling them directly. This way, researchers used to note down the responses of customers. But this trend is no more in practice. Nowadays, researchers collect data through advanced means like message, email or phone apps. You may have received messages from different call centres and cafes. The researchers ask for the satisfaction level of customers. It ultimately becomes easy to introduce new and effective changes in current policies.
Employee Satisfaction Research
All of the successful organisations take great care of the employee's satisfaction. No company can achieve its goal without the effective contribution of its employees. So, for having employee remarks, ‘employee satisfaction research' is used.
New Product Research
Another type of online research is new product research. This research helps a lot in predicting the demand and usage of any product. You can do online research for any type of product. It can be a phone, car or anything else.
Brand Loyalty Research
This research type is the demand of every business for good survival. For this, you have to be loyal to your work, product and customer.
Advantages of Online Research
Following are the advantages of conducting online research:
Large Data Sampling
In online research, it is quite easy to access the respondents. You just need to specify what kind of respondent is required for your research. Share links with those respondents, and you will get the right data. As you have to use the internet for online research, you can collect data from all over the globe. However, in case of any issue, master
dissertation writing services are available to provide you help.
Cost-Effective
Another advantage of conducting online research is that you can save a lot of money. You do not have to print hundreds of survey forms. In the same way, you can save much because you do not have to travel anywhere. You can complete every task by lying on your bed. Sometimes, researchers do not notice mistake in the survey form. After getting it printed, they come to know about the mistake. That is how they lose money. But in the case of online research, you can do any amendment without investing in it.
Automatic Data Entry
By collecting data through online means, you can access automated sheet of data. When you generate a Google form, you get responses on an excel sheet. Also, you can have auto-generated charts based on collected data. By looking at auto-generated charts, you can observe the pattern very easily.
Capable Tool for Research
For conducting online research, you can use the same means of data collection as you do in other types of research. For example, you can make a questionnaire or survey form just like you have to use in other research types. One exceptional thing is the poll. You can create a poll to get the required data.
Disadvantages of Online Research
Following are the disadvantages of conducting online research:
Use of Internet
In online research, you can collect data from those who have access to the internet. Suppose you need to collect data from poor people. In this case, you cannot go for external sources for conducting online research. The reason is that most of the poor people would not have internet access. That is how online research bounds you.
Biased Data
Any researcher who wants to make his name as a credible researcher would not go for biased research. That is why some researchers do not prefer online research. Conducting online research require extra attention.
Duplicate Respondents
While conducting online research, you may use more than one online platform. In this case, you can have possibility to get duplicate responses. This way, it becomes difficult to come up with high-quality data.
Tips in Conducting Online Research
- While conducting online research, you have to come across a lot of data. It can be a journal, book or other documents. It may happen that you get confused, and lots of data can divert your attention. As a result, you cannot achieve the goal of your research. So, it is suggested to keep your problem statement in front of you. Whatever material you finalise must be relevant to the topic of study.
- Conducting online research does not require much time. But once you get stuck, you may waste a lot of time on a single aspect. So, you really need to make a schedule. Set time for every milestone and try your level best to meet the deadline. It is good to make a flexible schedule, but it does not mean you need extra time for every single task.
- If you have distractions near to you, you can specify a particular place to study. The best place is a library. In it, you would not have an excuse for distractions.
- Another important thing to note is to collect relevant data from credible sources only. On the internet, everyone can post his/her material. Now it is your responsibility to identify which material is authentic. For this, you need to have a critical eye on every site you visit.
What Are the Best Tools for Online Research?
The use of tools for conducting online research is effective to a great extent. You can make your research experience interesting and worthy by using the following tools while conducting online research:
- Endnote
- Zotero
- RefWorks
- ContentMine
- DataElixir
Final Thought
Almost everything related to conducting online research has been discussed above. If you keep all these things in your mind, you will not get any complexity or confusion while conducting online research.
