Homework 6: survey

In this assignment, you will be brainstorming for a survey and then analyzing its results.

Due

This homework is due 23:59 on Thursday, April 18, but a part of it is due Tuesday, April 9 — this is explained below.

Collaboration

This assignment should be submitted in groups of 2.

Assignment

My goal in this assignment is to get you experience designing a survey and analyzing survey results. As always, the main constraint is that the subject will be something related to security and privacy.

Designing the survey

You will design this survey together as a class. Please use the class time on Monday, April 8, to discuss what you want to ask about and formulate your questions.

The only restrictions for the survey are that:

  • It must have something to do with security and privacy
  • It should take no more than 5 minutes to complete and consist of roughly 10–20 questions
  • It should consist of a mix of multiple-choice (including Likert-scale) and open-ended questions
  • It must not ask questions that are identifying or highly sensitive

Additionally, the survey must have a coherent theme: you shouldn’t ask about completely disparate topics; there must be a clear connection between all the questions.

To facilitate this, you should start your discussion by deciding on the research questions that you want to address (before focusing on the actual survey questions).

Work on the survey collaboratively and put your draft into this Google doc.

The draft of the survey is due Tuesday, April 9 by the end of the day. It will contribute to everyone’s grade (so if it is incomplete, everyone will lose points).

Feedback and data collection

After the class collaboratively comes up with the survey, I will provide feedback on it to help create the final version. Then I’ll use a participant platform to collect answers from real (anonymous) people to your questions.

Data analysis and report

I will share the raw data with the class. Then, you will need to analyze it and write a report about its results. Below are some key points to keep in mind.

Model the report on the results sections of papers you’ve read. This includes not just content but tone and style. (Note, however, that you should also avoid excessively formal and stilted writing: it’s better to express ideas clearly and succinctly; ornate and flowery language only distracts from your writing’s goal.)

Your report should clearly identify the research questions being addressed by the survey. Then, you should provide answers for each question based on the data collected.

The write-up should incorporate the results of each question asked in the survey. (Otherwise what was the point asking them?) You should not, though, simply go through each question one-by-one and describe its results. Recall the papers we’ve read: they don’t this, instead pursuing a more fluid narrative.

When appropriate, you should include figures and/or tables. When you do this, you should provide descriptive captions for each, also briefly summarize the findings in the body of the text. Your report must include at least one figure and one table.

For open-ended questions, you should summarize the range of opinions of the respondents and identify the most common ones. (In a more thorough study than this assignment, you would engage in the more formal process of thematic analysis.) In your write-up, you should support all of this with concrete examples by providing specific quotes. When quoting a particular participant, identify them by their ID, like the following: “Privacy is very important to me!” (P5).

At the end, you should summarize your overall conclusions (again with reference to the research questions) and reflect on any open questions and potential future directions for exploration.

What to turn in

Your write-up, as a PDF generated by LaTeX, addressing the key requirements above.

Late policy

  • Assignments submitted up to 24 hours late receive a deduction of one letter grade (10 percentage points).
  • Assignments submitted more than 24 hours late receive no credit.
  • The late penalty will be waived for up to 3 homework assignments.
    • However, this cannot be stacked (you can’t use more than one late day per assignment).
    • Even with this waiver, an assignment submitted more than 24 hours late receives no credit.