The Internet offers a new way to collect data in surveys. Now respondents can get a form on the Internet to respond to survey questions. Many respondents will prefer web interviewing to filling out a form.
Blaise Internet offers an easy way to do web interviewing. As Blaise questionnaires can be distributed via the Internet, it is possible to do Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI).
Respondents can receive a questionnaire in several ways. For off-line interviewing a questionnaire can be attached to an email message. On-line interviewing can be realized by an email message that contains a link to a web page which starts the survey.
In the off-line mode the respondent does not need a connection to the Internet to fill out the form in his browser. After the respondent finishes the questionnaire the connection with the Internet is opened and the questionnaire is sent back. No routing is possible in this type of survey. All questions must be answered, except those that can be left empty by design. Only range checks can be applied in the off-line mode. All questions appear on a single page which can be quite long.
A questionnaire can also be interactive. It will then be started from a web page and it requires a connection to the Internet during its use. This is on-line interviewing. Routing of questions is possible. The answer to each question or group of questions is sent back to the server. On the server the answers are checked and the routing through the questionnaire is calculated. Then a new page is sent to the respondent on which the next appropriate question is asked or a message is sent to the respondent in case there is an error.
Blaise Internet supports both these types of web surveys. The questionnaire must be programmed in Blaise as if it was a CAPI questionnaire. Blaise Internet translates this Blaise questionnaire to web pages and forms, using layout features specific to the Internet as well as most of the CAPI features. Many defaults are provided to have you up and running quickly, but Blaise Internet is also customizable and provides tools to help you define your own web layout.
On-line and off-line interviewing can be mixed.
Blaise Internet can store the data directly into a Blaise database at the server or on another server. This allows, for instance, mixing Internet data collection with CATI. The storage on another server can be accomplished by using the Blaise OLE DB Interface, which also enables the storage into relational databases.
Blaise Internet supports Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher and (in a limited fashion) other browsers. On the server side, it requires Windows 2000 or higher, server version, and Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), version 5.0 or higher.