What Prompts College Students to Participate in Online Surveys?

Online surveys are frequently used in higher education to collect students’ opinions. This study investigated the factors associated with students’ willingness to respond to online surveys. Using 540 samples from undergraduate and graduate students in the United States, this study conducted a factor analysis to categorize the reasons that students willingly participate in online surveys. Four factors were identified: Format, Affiliation, Content, and Contact. The regression analysis revealed format was significantly associated with the undergraduate students’ online survey participation, while content was significantly related to the graduate students’ online survey participation. These findings indicate the behavior of responding to online surveys may vary depending on the participants’ educational level. They also suggest a need to develop different strategies when designing online surveys for educational purposes to enhance response rates.