This study was designed to integrate a mailing list-based survey with an internetbased
presentation/response in order to take into account the trend toward selfadministration
that is evident in everyday interactions with automated services that have
taken the place of personal interactions. A random sample of 2,999 was taken from
applicants for Triploid Grass Carp Permits from the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department. A forty-nine question survey was constructed containing five sections:
general pond characteristics, physical pond characteristics, aquatic vegetation, fish and
other wildlife, and management goals. The primary emphasis of this study was to
determine what specific problems Texas pond owners faced, how widely these problems
occurred, and where pond owners got the information they used to deal with pond
management problems. A secondary emphasis of the project was to examine the
potential presented by the Internet for use in this type of information gathering and
distribution for Texas Cooperative Extension. An overall response rate of 21.3%
(excluding non-deliverables and unusable submitted surveys) was obtained. Summary
statistics for each question were calculated and then compared in order to gain a clearer picture of the pond management practices employed by Texas pond owners. These
results indicated some initial discrepancies between pond owners?? management practices
and current management recommendations, most dramatically where aquatic vegetation
was concerned. The internet-based survey methodology worked effectively to lower the
cost of distribution and the workload of data entry when compared to the mail survey.
These benefits outweighed the disadvantages caused by survey error with the new
methodology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2650 |
| Date | 01 November 2005 |
| Creators | Schonrock, April Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Masser, Michael P. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 2090339 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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