Institute Activities
The Institute conducts face-to-face surveys, telephone surveys and internet surveys, all at the highest methodological standard. In addition, we offer methodological workshops on topics related to the collection and analysis of survey data. The Institute issues two publications: Public Opinions publishesthe findings of surveys on social issues in Israel, and B.I. Cohen News publishes periodical public opinion surveys conducted by the Institute, as well as information about databases available to researchers and students.
The Institute is the Israeli representative of the follwing international projects:
Due to the current development of internet-based survey studies, the Institute offers academic institutes' faculty and administration personnel the possibility of conducting reliable and valid surveys over the internet. The internet surveys conducted by the Institute are based on international research and theoretical knowledge pertaining to the administration of quantitative studies over the internet, and facilitate examination of the research questions in a reliable and valid manner while effectively dealing with possible errors in the surveys.
Relevant study populations for internet surveys:
Academic faculty at academic institutions (researchers, lecturers and teaching assistants), students and graduates; administrative staff at academic institutes (management, human resources, libraries, internal and external service users etc.); research and public organization employees (local councils, schools, public non-profit organizations etc.); research fund scholarship recipients and prospective recipients.
A description of the survey system used by the Institute to conduct internet surveys appears in the following link:B. I. Cohen News, 2007
A sample questionnaire may be seen in the following link: sample questionnaire
In the past year the Institute conducted evaluation surveys for several departments of Tel Aviv University as part of a comprehensive system to evaluate the fields of study, and to test statistically the attitudes of TAU graduates to their academic studies in the given department and their contribution to their professional life.
The surveys were conducted over the internet among graduates whose current e-mail address was obtainable. Each interviewee received an e-mail message providing access to the internet site for the computerized questionnaire, with a personal user name and password.
Responses were updated online in the database (without interviewees' personal details to ensure anonymity and confidentiality).
Interviewees who did not respond to the questionnaire after the first approach were sent a reminder (via e-mail) requesting them to do so. After this reminder, overall response rate to the survey was over 50%.
