thinkPhD

Yesterday, we inducted 13 new members in our Delta Mu Delta chapter. Congratulations to the new members! We are working to build our chapter and offer “local” or NCU-specific scholarships. If you interested in learning more about the Lambda Eta Chapter, send me a note or post a comment here.

I believe that honors and awards can be very effective motivators, and serving in a leadership capacity is a growth opportunity. I am the Secretary for the Chapter and I have met quite a few interesting people through this role. Let me encourage you to join and take part in an honor society like DMD!

I used SurveyMonkey for data collection. I chose the Select plan at $17 per month. The Free plan only allows 10 questions per survey and 100 responses. This plan does not have Excel download. The Select plan allows unlimited questions, unlimited responses, and skip logic. Skip logic is necessary for every dissertation survey because if the participant refuses to accept the Informed Consent Acknowledgement, the participant should not be allowed to take the survey. This plan also has Excel export and the survey can be downloaded by PDF. SurveyMonkey invoices every three months.

Now that I am finished with data collection, I am reverting my account to the Free plan. Survey hosting is one of those expenses that no one told you about. It would be great if the school had a hosting account. I think responses might be better if the web address had .edu instead of some of the crazy hosting service names, like SurveyMonkey. This name does not sound professional or academic!

All in all, this hosting package was sufficient. Keep in mind that it takes time to set up the survey because it could not be uploaded from Word. I recommend that you create the survey and have a friend take the survey to check it for misspellings, poor logic, etc., before initiating a pilot study. I had a misspelled word that I never caught until the pilot study, and what an embarrassment!