Please help a student with a research project

[jollyumbc]

Greetings!

I am a graduate student in the Information Systems department of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). I am conducting a study on determining the near future technology needs of medication management for senior people and the practical implications of a change in technology understanding in the next generation of senior citizens.

As part of this study, I am eliciting participation in a university approved online survey. I would very much appreciate if you could help by taking the study yourself or forwarding this message to any others you think would be interested. The participation in this survey is totally voluntary.

The survey usually takes around 30 minutes to complete and is available at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=al_2b8JYzTJEVmXzgzW9Ku_2bg_3d_3d

Thanks for your time and any assistance in this study you can provide will be very much appreciated!

Jocelyn Wu (Ph.D. Student)
Information Systems Department
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
jocelyn.wu@umbc.edu

 

[donheff]

You don't describe who you want to take the survey. Just seniors? All ages?

 

[samclem]

A suggestion:
While it's possible that this post is entirely legitimate, I think you'd get higher participation if the link led to a URL that was identifiable as being associated with an institution of higher learning. "Surveymonkey" doesn't inspire much confidence.

 

[rs0460a]

"Surveymonkey" doesn't inspire much confidence.

I think it's a code name for "old pharts" (like me )...

- Ron

 

[jollyumbc]

You don't describe who you want to take the survey. Just seniors? All ages?

Thank you so much for the comments. We are trying to find people above 50 to join our survey.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Surveymonkey is legit. It is actually pretty cool--custom survey designer.

 

[WM]

I'm not vouching for this particular survey, but Surveymonkey really is an online survey tool that's commonly used by social scientists. I'm not sure it's possible to make the link go through an institution.

Jocelyn, it might also help to describe the study in plainer language. I have a PhD myself, and I'm having a hard time understanding what you're looking at. How does understanding technology relate to medication? What kinds of information are you trying to collect? Whether people take medication? Whether they manage it online somehow?

People here are friendly, but wary of spammers. A little more info before we have to click on an unfamiliar link might get you more respondents. (I'd participate but I'm only 33, sorry)

 

[rs0460a]

People here are friendly, but wary of spammers. A little more info before we have to click on an unfamiliar link might get you more respondents. (I'd participate but I'm only 33, sorry)

Hey - I'm almost twice your age but you are correct. Even as an "old guy" I like more info before I persue any link....

- Ron

 

[Nords]

A suggestion:
While it's possible that this post is entirely legitimate, I think you'd get higher participation if the link led to a URL that was identifiable as being associated with an institution of higher learning. "Surveymonkey" doesn't inspire much confidence.

Sam, that's so last millenium.

SurveyMonkey is catching fire in the high schools for kids to do projects without having to get bogged down in the mechanics of putting questions on paper, reproducing & distributing, collecting, collating & tabulating, and (finally!) running a statistics package. Remember when we had to "write our term papers" by first coming up with 100 notecards, not 90 or 102 but 100?

Our kid is planning her senior project to redesign the high school campus of her dreams. One part of the project is getting customer feedback, and 2000 students are far more likely to go to SurveyMonkey on their cell phones than they are to fill out a piece of paper...

I was trying to talk her into something a bit [-]less labor-intensive[/-] more achievable & concrete like training for a 10K run, but SurveyMonkey is making survey research a lot more accessible to the average human. So it's good to see this research tool is being used by college students as well-- no doubt they're also some of its harshest critics as well as supporters.

Provided, of course, that a group of people don't get together with the "vote early, vote often" syndrome. Not that I'd accuse the 6000+ members of this board with trying to masquerade as a 50-something Norwegian widow from Missoula...

 

[jollyumbc]

I really appreciate the friendliness of people in this forum.

Actually the final goal of our project is to develop new type of technology that would potentially help senior people who have difficulty in medication management, such as taking the right medicine at the right time with correct dosage. We would like to design the new technology focus on the users need by considering the cognition and usability issues.

This survey is the early part of the project. Thus, in the beginning, we need to collect information about potential needs from senior people, their attitudes towards technology usage, the problems that they encounter in managing their medicine, etc.

I hope it make a little bit more clearly about what we are studying. And this is the first time I conduct survey study. Any comments and suggestions are very welcome. They are really helpful for me. Again, thank you so much for all this advices and helps. I really appreciate it.

-Jocelyn

 

[NotReady4Purple]

I took it. It seems legitimate.

 

[Goonie]

I took it. It seems legitimate.

Ditto.

 

[ladelfina]

One client of ours was big into developing home monitoring systems (of meds, BP, weight, blood sugar, meals, even mood, pain, and energy levels.). There were elaborate tree-structure LCD screens full of questions that the ill person was supposed to navigate and answer on a daily basis. The answers were supposed to be reviewed remotely by health-care professionals. It seemed like a giant PITA for the ill person but I guess it helps cut costs. Or at least our client could sell it on that basis..

I would help the gal out with her survey but I'm not over 50 yet.
I hope she realizes that filling out online surveys sharply narrows the field of people providing input to those seniors already comfortable with technology. A more realistic survey might be made down at the Wal*Mart, using pencil and paper.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I'm 61, buy prescription meds on-line, contact my doctors by e-mail, check my test results on-line; but never take surveys. It seems you have a built-in-bias to find people over 50 who spend time on-line. Aren't there surveys floating around to show that that population is the least likely to be computer literate? You say your interest is in the next generation of seniors so maybe it's not so much of a bias. But I do believe voluntary surveys result in further bias.

 

[jollyumbc]

One client of ours was big into developing home monitoring systems (of meds, BP, weight, blood sugar, meals, even mood, pain, and energy levels.). There were elaborate tree-structure LCD screens full of questions that the ill person was supposed to navigate and answer on a daily basis. The answers were supposed to be reviewed remotely by health-care professionals. It seemed like a giant PITA for the ill person but I guess it helps cut costs. Or at least our client could sell it on that basis..

I would help the gal out with her survey but I'm not over 50 yet.
I hope she realizes that filling out online surveys sharply narrows the field of people providing input to those seniors already comfortable with technology. A more realistic survey might be made down at the Wal*Mart, using pencil and paper.

That is a very good point! One of the factors that we would like to investigate in this study is comparing people those are familiar with IT technology with those who are not. Besides the online survey, we also have paper survey at the assisted living facilities and may also have street interview later.
-Jocelyn

 

[HelpMeRhonda]

So,,,, you don't need any of us to redesign your survey. You're justing asking us to take it...

Will do

 

[jollyumbc]

So,,,, you don't need any of us to redesign your survey. You're justing asking us to take it...

Will do

But any comments and suggestions are very welcome. They are very helpful and important for our research in the later part, although may not directly affect the current survey.

 

[OAG]

Took it. No identifying data asked for or given-just city state zip and country. Seems simple and legitimate.

 

[ladelfina]

Jocelyn, thanks for replying and best of luck with your survey. My faith in the younger generation is renewed!!

Will you share your results with us?

Sometimes I think the gap in technology-apprehension or -appreciation is more due to bad interface design as to unfamiliarity with the "idea" of technology in the first place. I have a pretty technical background but never tape TV shows because it is too hard. Seriously, on our system, just to turn it on I have to push seven distinct buttons, which are, in order: Sky, TV, ON, 1, help, guide, and ok. Intuitive, right? Oh, and "help" is the button that changes the video input. And "TV" and "on" don't turn on the TV.. that's what the "1" is for. To naturally embrace such a thing you have to be a stone geek, or mentally disturbed (which some might argue is one and the same).

 

[jollyumbc]

Jocelyn, thanks for replying and best of luck with your survey. My faith in the younger generation is renewed!!

Will you share your results with us?

Sometimes I think the gap in technology-apprehension or -appreciation is more due to bad interface design as to unfamiliarity with the "idea" of technology in the first place. I have a pretty technical background but never tape TV shows because it is too hard. Seriously, on our system, just to turn it on I have to push seven distinct buttons, which are, in order: Sky, TV, ON, 1, help, guide, and ok. Intuitive, right? Oh, and "help" is the button that changes the video input. And "TV" and "on" don't turn on the TV.. that's what the "1" is for. To naturally embrace such a thing you have to be a stone geek, or mentally disturbed (which some might argue is one and the same).

Thanks a lot. I'll try my best with it. We'll are going to have a paper on this topic, if the survey goes well. I would be more than happy to share with you. But would it be too boring to post a research paper here?

 

[rs0460a]

would it be too boring to post a research paper here?

For me, nah ...

Anyway, it will be another opportunity to "enhance your future" by debating, arguing, and generally just be "pains in the a--".

But wait. We're (at least some of us) are old, retired, and bored (or why would we be posting, here ).

Bring it on (seriously). We (at least me) would like to see the results of your work.

- Ron

 

[ladelfina]

Jocelyn.. you obviously haven't browsed the forum enough. Here, a hot topic is dryer sheets.

NOTHING is "too boring"!!!

(Oh, and welcome to your future -maybe)

 

[Brat]

I took the survey too. One med management tool not mentioned is a reminder targeting a household member who is making sure that meds taken by a frail person are manged. [Members of the sandwich generation have a lot of balls in the air, reminders to check on elderly parents meds can be very helpful.)

The survey design doesn't consider that some state laws require that an institutional pharmacy be used in many facilities. Meds this way are often not covered by patient insurance. Folks moving to retirement settings should be sure to explore that situation.

 

[HFWR]

Jocelyn.. you obviously haven't browsed the forum enough. Here, a hot topic is dryer sheets.

NOTHING is "too boring"!!!

(Oh, and welcome to your future -maybe)

Nothing is so boring that can't be fixed by bacon and boobs...

 

[Nords]

It seems you have a built-in-bias to find people over 50 who spend time on-line. Aren't there surveys floating around to show that that population is the least likely to be computer literate? You say your interest is in the next generation of seniors so maybe it's not so much of a bias. But I do believe voluntary surveys result in further bias.

See, they're only going to offer the special longevity drugs online.

So in a few years they won't have to worry about the seniors who don't do online surveys...