ESCWA Workshop on Using Electronic Data Collection Technologies in Population and Housing Censuses. Cairo , 29-31 January 2018

Using Internet self-response as a data collection mode in the population and housing censuses :

Opportunities, challenges and best practices

Ahmad Hussein , Ph.D.

Outline of presentation

I. Introduction

II. Using internet self- response as a collection mode

III. Requirements for data collection via internet

IV. Implementation process

V. Contact and communication strategy

VI. Identification of respondents

VII. Development of data collection application and portal

VIII. Support for respondents

IX. Management and monitoring of internet response

X. Security

XI. Best Practices

XII. Conclusion

Internet response Take-up rates in UNECE countries, 2010 round

1%

5%

7%

12%

16%

19%

25%

27%

32%

33%

34%

37%

41%

50%

55%

67%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

Switzerland /c

Germany /c

Slovakia /t

Poland /c

United Kingdom /t

Hungary /t

Liechtenstein /c

Czechia /t

Latvia /c

Italy /t

Lithuania /c

Spain /c

Bulgaria /t

Portugal /t

Canada /t

Estonia /c

February 13, 2018

Internet response Cost of developing online questionnaire / internet systems (as % of total census cost)

1%

1%

1%

1%

3%

3%

3%

4%

5%

5%

5%

5%

5%

9%

10%

12%

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14%

Poland

Canada

Czech Republic

France

Bulgaria

Italy

Portugal

Spain

Latvia

Lithuania

Switzerland

Hungary

United Kingdom

Estonia

Luxembourg

Slovakia

Using internet self- response as a collection mode Opportunities:

• Improved coverage

• Potential cost savings

• Convenience and lower response burden

• Improved timeliness

• Potential privacy

• Integration with social media

• Generate large amount of meta data

Using internet self- response as a collection mode Challenges :

• Reliable linkage between household and location

• Coordination of multi-mode data collection

• Development of a technical infrastructure

• Internet broadband coverage

• Protecting data security

Using internet self-response as a collection mode: Requirements

• High literacy rate

• High level access to computers

• High level access to internet

• Use of mobile devices

• Public trust and acceptance

• Reasonable assumptions about take-up rates

• Availability of address/building/ Dwelling list

• Legal authority

Implementation Process: Pilot

• Public acceptance

• Take-up rates

• Data quality

• Impact on field management

• Capacity of infrastructure

• Impact on response burden

• Impact on under-enumeration or overcount

Implementation Process: Planning considerations

• Local circumstances

• International experience

• Preferred strategy

• Risk analysis

• Implementation Plan

• Evaluation plan

Contact and communication strategy

Contact Strategy • Multi phase approach • Offering paper questionnaire • Pre-registration • Choosing the best approach Communication Strategy • Publicity campaign • Social marketing campaign

Identification of respondents

•Better linking households to dwelling

•Ability to deliver different forms

•Reduced risk of personation

•Reduced risk of duplicate response

•Better security

Questionnaire Design

• Screen visibility

• Easy to complete

• Format

• Skip pattern

• Reponses options and menus

• Validation messages

• Progress through the questionnaire

• Comparison wit paper questionnaire

Support for respondents

•Online help

• Frequently asked questions

• Imbedded help text

•Questionnaire guide

•Help line

Management and monitoring of Internet response Requirements :

• Metadata -- During enumeration • Daily returns

• Cumulative returns

• Comparison with predicted returns

• Concurrent users

• Saved, abandoned or incomplete returns

• Reports on IT infrastructure stability and capacity

Management and monitoring of Internet response Requirements :

• Metadata -- For later analysis • Number of edits

• Use of help pages

• Item non-response rate

• Average completion time

• Use of foreign languages

• Comparison of socio-demographic variables for households using different devices

Management and monitoring of Internet response Requirements :

• Coordination with non-response follow-up • Critical in multi-mode collection

• Central, integrated collection operation control system, with field communication system

• Non-response follow-up procedures need to have flexibility

Security :

• Strong encryption technologies should be used

• Encryption of data before storage

• Data processing should be on a high–security internal network

• Powerful firewalls should be used

• Only trusted employees can access data and only from secure locations

• Seeking to be part of the national cyber strategy

13/02/2018 STATISTICS CANADA • STATISTIQUE CANADA 19

2016 Census Wave Methodology

13/02/2018 STATISTICS CANADA • STATISTIQUE CANADA 20

2016 Collection Results

Response Mode 2011 Census

2016 Census

Internet self-response 53.8% 68.3%

Paper self-response 31.3% 20.5%

Total self-response 85.2% 88.8%

Interviewer-collected 12.9% 9.7%

Overall collection response 98.1% 98.4

Conclusion : Develop Internet data collection application in several languages in

some Arab countries

Use of online geographic reference sources to validate geocodes

Communications must continue to localize and personalize messaging and content across all channels.

A significant proportion of the population should have access to internet using a PC (desktop or laptop) or tablet

Using a push-paper questionnaire provided only after several attempts to encourage internet response

Conclusion:

Move to internet self-response in test with larger samples, testing alternative strategies

Important to provide good contextual help function, particularly for “difficult” census questions

Provide support via toll-free telephone helpline, and social media (e.g. Facebook)

Internet response can be used as main method in part of the country

Adopting multi-mode data collection seems to be a good approach in the Arab countries

Conclusion:

Providing user friendly instructions for respondents and procedures for supporting respondents

Developing procedures for ensuring data security and confidentiality of personal information

Adopting internet self-response may contribute to give a positive, modern and efficient image of NSO

ahmad.hussein@gmail.com