Example: Distribution of a Survey

Free High School Science Texts Survey Distribution

The OER project Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) wanted to understand how its author volunteers perceived the project’s volunteer recruitment and peer production processes. As outlined below, FHSST used a 9-question survey sent through email to its volunteers.

1. The survey consisted of a combination of 9 open-ended and fill-in-the-blank questions that addressed issues around volunteer recruitment, engagement and support.
2. Email was chosen as the primary method of distribution because of the volunteers’ disperse geographic locations, and because they most often communicated through email.
3. The survey was emailed directly to the project’s ten core volunteers.
4. The survey was also posted on the FHSST website as an additional channel for its wider volunteer community.
5. An announcement of the survey was posted on FHSST’s discussion forum.
6. Six of the ten core volunteers responded to the survey, providing insight into the mechanisms that were successful in supporting volunteers, and which needed to be added or developed further. The website and forum postings did not result in additional survey participants.