Each Web survey we develop includes a monitoring system for use by survey managers, survey project officers, and survey contractors. These collection systems include monitoring, administrative, and reporting functionality. All data provided by survey participants can be inspected and updated easily, and survey managers can search for respondents by keyword or view a directory of all respondents. The directory also provides quick access to user passwords and respondent contact information, which only is available to the survey manager or other authorized staff.

Survey tracking also can be performed through the monitoring system. Our Survey Tracking Information screen typically shows key survey milestones. Having such information throughout the course of a survey lets the survey manager contact nonrespondents well before survey closeout to encourage their participation in the survey and increase response rates. This can be done with the built-in individual or group e-mail facilities. Other e-mail functions allow for distributing user IDs and passwords to all users at the beginning of the data collection cycle or resending the information to individual schools throughout the data collection period.

Logging features allow the survey staff and client to track all contact with respondents throughout the data collection cycle. The Reports section of our Web-based monitoring systems allows the survey manager or client to view the overall status of the data collection at any point of the cycle. Before widespread use of the Web for survey collection and monitoring, similar reports were only available to the client on a monthly basis. The reports section of the Monitoring System also can tabulate key data variables from available final submissions. This feature alerts the survey manager to key trends well before survey closeout.