26 reasons to use Schoolzone for online research

Company profile

1. What experience does your company have in providing online samples for market research?

Schoolzone has being growing its panel of educationalists since 1996 and since 1998 we have been consulting them for the purposes of educational research and evaluation of resources for teaching and learning.

Sample source

2. Please describe and explain the types of source for the online sample that you provide.

Our panel is recruited through the Schoolzone website which is aimed at UK teachers: the current figure stands at over 60,000.

3. What do you consider to be the primary advantage of your sample over other sample sources in the marketplace?

A high degree of profiling and a close fit to the DfE’s own profile of the teacher community, plus a broad range of member interests makes the Schoolzone teacher panel unique.

4. If the sample source is a panel or database, is the panel or database used solely for market research?

Aside from our own regular communications providing information and advice, the panel is used solely for research purposes.

5. How do you source groups that may be hard-to-reach?

Teachers are hard to reach in general but we manage this through having an extensive network, contactable by email and, more importantly, one which is used to taking part in online research. Detailed profiling allows us to contact even those with minority interests. We also conduct pupil voice studies by using teachers as agents.

6. What are people told when they are recruited?

There is full description of the benefits of joining the Schoolzone panel on the registration page at http://www.schoolzone.co.uk/register/register.asp. Recruitment for specific projects carries wording which is agreed with the client and which follows the MRS Code of Practice.

Panel recruitment

7. What is your annual panel turnover rate and how is it calculated?

Panel numbers increase on average by about 1.5% per month; turnover rate is less than 10% per annum calculated on the numbers registering and de-registering annually.

8. Please describe the opt-in process.

There are two levels of registration – registered users provide a base level of information, for example to be included in relevant email deliveries; consultants provide a more detailed CV. There are four levels of service, access to which can be managed by the members profile page.

9. Do you have a confirmation of identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents at the time of registration with the panel?

We ask a series of questions to determine the profile of the member: there is no advantage to answering incorrectly and multiple entries (validated by email address) are not allowed. However, on each correspondence with members, further validation is required: this may ask for confirmation of data already held, or use correlation questions, for example. Registrants are asked to provide their teacher number or other proof that they are teachers. School postcodes are used to establish the fact that panel members are UK-based.

10. What profile data is kept on panel members? For how many members is this data collected and how often is this data updated?

Panel members are required to provide, as a minimum, job description, postcode, age ranges taught and subject specialism. Additionally, as consultants (of whom there are approximately 4000), a wide range of consultant data is held on previous professional experience and current situation. Users are prompted to update their details at intervals and whenever they log in to the Schoolzone site.

11. What is the size and/or the capacity of the panel?

As at June 2010:
• Over 25,000 members have participated in at least one survey
• Over 4,000 have updated their profile data within the last 12 months
• 9,000 have registered to join the panel within the last 12 months.

Panel and sample management

12. Please describe your sampling process including your exclusion procedures if applicable. Can samples be deployed as batches/replicates, by time zones, geography, etc? If so, how is this controlled?

All profile data can be used as a basis for sampling, or we can approach a wider group and profile responses to recruit a sub-set panel. Our sophisticated email system allows for scheduled delivery, screening, filtering and repeat sends – a full report of activity is available.

13. Explain how people are invited to take part in a survey. What does a typical invitation look like?

Schoolzone’s community managers contact the selected panel members by email: wording emphasises the benefits of taking part – both professional and financial – and all wording is agreed with client, following MRS Code of Practice. The surveys themselves show current number of entries in order to indicate the chances of winning. Respondents are also invited to send the survey to a colleague. Live invitations can also be found on our home page and other relevant pages across the site - eg Myzone.

14. Please describe the nature of your incentive system

Most surveys use a combinations of payments per response and monthly cash prize draw, following MRS Code of Practice; other activities, such as online focus groups or surveys where respondents are pre-recruited offer a cash payment and a rate equivalent to £20 per hour.

15. How often are individual members contacted for online surveys within a given time period? Do you keep data on panelist participation history and are limits placed on the frequency that members are contacted and asked to participate in a survey?

Surveys are sent at most, weekly. Survey completions are logged for each panel member. Limits are applied to the panel as a whole, not on individuals.

16. Is there a privacy policy in place? If so, what does it state? Is the panel compliant with all regional, national and local laws with respect to privacy, data protection and children?

Our Privacy Policy is linked from each survey sent and can be found at: http://www.schoolzone.co.uk/community/about/policy.asp

Schoolzone is a Market Research Society Company Partner and fully complies with the MRS Code of Practice.

Schoolzone is also DPA registered and all researchers are CRB cleared to work with children.

17. What data protection/security measures do you have in place?

All panellist data is stored on secure servers with access controlled by Level 3 security; access is protected by encrypted password and IP blocking. Backups are carried out every 24 hours onto DAT tape which is removed from premises overnight. These operate on a 14 day cycle.

18. Do you apply a quality management system? Please describe it.

Schoolzone works to a full QA manual, following ISO9001 as a minimum, and an enhanced Code of Practice to incorporate sensitive issues arising from working in school environments. All policies are reviewed at least annually and are available on request from philip@schoolzone.co.uk

19. Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, please describe the process for obtaining permission.

All interviews with children are mediated via their school which gains parental permissions where appropriate. Our policy states that we do not use any visual recording during our work with children and names are not used or recorded during audio recording. We never contact children directly for any purpose.

Partnerships and multiple panel membership

20. Do you supplement your samples with samples from other providers? How do you select these partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider? Do you de-duplicate the sample when using multiple sample providers?

On occasions, clients provide their own lists for use: these are de-duped by email address where possible before initial contact. Should Schoolzone email using clients’ details, we use introductions identifying the source of the data.

No other partner samples are used.

21. Do you have a policy regarding multi-panel membership? What efforts do you undertake to ensure that survey results are unbiased given that some individuals belong to multiple panels?

None – we neither encourage nor discourage multi-panel membership.

Data quality and validation

22. What are likely survey start rates, drop-out and participation rates in connection with a provided sample? How are these computed?

Responses to surveys sent to whole panel audiences generate 600 to 1000 responses, depending on the subject matter covered. Our usual practice is to offer cash prize draws. Opening rates of email invitations can be compared to completion rates.

23. Do you maintain individual level data such as recent participation history, date of entry,source, etc., on your panelists? Are you able to supply your client with a per job analysis of such individual level data?

Yes.

24. Do you use data quality analysis and validation techniques to identify inattentive and fraudulent respondents? If yes, what techniques are used and at what point in the process are they applied?

Data validation is carried out on submission of each page within surveys. Correlation questions help to identify fraudulent responses, for example to identify respondents falsely claiming to be teachers. Pattern analysis is used to identify random responses.

25. Do you measure respondent satisfaction?

Panellists have access to a range of opt in services and can opt out of any in which they have become uninterested. Survey opt our rates are compared with those of other services. We also run an termly consultations via email, online discussions and surveys which appraise general levels of satisfaction. Feedback is also invited via the Schoolzone website and by email: a contact is offered in each survey sent.

26. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?

Surveys are sent via a sophisticated email system which shows opening rates, click-throughs and heat maps of response – these are available to clients to help inform the process of invitation.

A full technical report is offered as part of any research offering, covering whole project data as well as, for example variation within individual questions. This can be used to identify interest rates from different samples of the audience and help inform future projects.

We also offer comparative data with aggregated response rates on a range of categories, for example product types, region, school phase and so on.

If you would like to ask for further clarification of any of these points, please call Schoolzone's Research Director, Philip Collie on 01242 262906 or email philip@schoolzone.co.uk