What is the impact of smartphone optimization on long surveys?

Abstract

Using results from a ten-institution experiment that used the 2015 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), this study details the impact that smartphone optimization has on a survey with over 100 questions. The study's research questions center on how optimizing a survey for smartphones affects various data quality indicators including early abandonment, missing data, item nonresponse, duration, straight-lining, and subjective student evaluations. The study also investigates scale measurement invariance for NSSE's ten Engagement Indicators. Results indicate that the smartphone-optimized survey format outperforms both smartphone-unoptimized and desktop survey formats in several ways.