Question

The dean of a college would like to determine the feelings of students concerning a new registration fee that would be used to upgrade the recreational facilities on campus. All registered students would pay the fee each term. Which of the following data collection plans would provide the best representation of students' opinions at the school? OSurvey every 10th student who enters the current recreational facilities between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 pm until 100 students have been asked. Randomly sample fifty student ID numbers and send a survey to all students in the sample ︵ Place an ad in the campus newspaper inviting students to complete an online survey. Collect the responses of the first 200 students who respond. All of the above would be equally effective.

Answer 1

Ans: Randomly sample 50 student ID numbers and send a survey to all students in the sample.

In the first plan, there is possible undercoverage because only the students entering the recreational facility are sampled. In the third plan, there is possible volunteer bias as the students volunteer to respond can be the ones with special interest in this issue and this may not be representative of the population. The second method is simple random sampling which gives the most representative sample for the population.