Question

Imagine that you want to know which statistics class to take following this methods course. You are deciding between completing a cross sectional design survey (asking a current group of statistics class in one survey about their experiences in their statistics class) and conducting a panel study (asking a current statistics class about their experiences at the start of the semester, half way through the semester, and then at the end of the semester.) Which design study will yield the best results? Which would you feel the most comfortable taking information from? Why?

Answer 1

To get the best results about the information of the statistics class, longitudinal design would yield the best results in which the experiences are asked at different intervals of time throughout the semester. This will help us know any changes in characteristics if there are any. This would not be possible in cross sectional study where information is taken at one point of time and we won't be sure what happened after the survey. Therefore, longitudinal design will yield the best results.

If we talk about the ease of getting information, this will be easier in cross sectional studies as the survey is to be done once whereas in longitudinal design, the survey is done of the same people at different times which has some potential cons like attrition.