Participate in my PhD Research into Geocaching

June 8, 2007

I'm a PhD student based in the Open University in the UK, researching the impact of location awareness on informal learning. I’m particularly interested in geocaching, and in the effect it has had on the way people experience their physical environment and interact with other members of the geocaching community.

Bryan from Geocaching.com has kindly given me permission to invite geocachers from the Groundspeak forums to fill in my web questionnaire. I’m looking to collect data from as many geocachers as possible, so please take 10 minutes to complete this survey:

http://elsa.open.ac.uk/geocaching.survey

I would like to follow up the web survey with some case-studies. If you would be happy to participate in more in-depth interviews either by phone, web-based video conferencing or email, please provide your contact details at the end of the survey. I shall write up the results of this study in my thesis and will post a summary of my findings in this forum, but all data I collect will be anonymised and will not be tracked back to individuals.

For more details about my PhD research, or to contact me about this study, please visit my university webpage or post your questions in this thread.

I hope the survey will be fun to do. Thanks in advance for participating.

Gill

June 8, 2007

I started filling in your form, but stopped when I read the question 'how do you find the time to go geocaching?'. Sorry dude, this is not a research question. You don't find time, you don't have time. I hope the quality of the research is not a criterium for your PhD. What are you going to write in your findings? 'a lot of people answered that they did not had a life next to geocaching, i found this to be a funny answer?'

June 8, 2007

I started filling in your form, but stopped when I read the question 'how do you find the time to go geocaching?'. Sorry dude, this is not a research question. You don't find time, you don't have time. I hope the quality of the research is not a criterium for your PhD. What are you going to write in your findings? 'a lot of people answered that they did not had a life next to geocaching, i found this to be a funny answer?'

Hi,

I'm sorry that my question caused you to give up on the survey. It was not intended to offend. I have done several pilot studies and one of the factors that emerged as critical to the level of engagement with the mobile activities I was looking into was motivation. In my last pilot study I provided people with technology (HP IPAQ 6915s with GPS, camera, etc) and asked them to participate in a GPS-guided nature trail. Among my findings was an issue with motivation. Because I am interested in what people do in the informal sphere, I tried to allow a fair amount of latitude in how the participants actually did the pilot. I asked people to do the trail using the IPAQ, but when they did it was up to them, within a 3-4 month period. I asked them to take pictures and record their experiences in a shared blog but I did not specify when or how often.

Some participants did participate fully, but a high percentage did not despite seeming very keen at the start of the pilot. Upon further enquiry, "lack of time" was often cited as a reason for non-participation in the blog (all participants did the Nature Trail at least once). However I think that "lack of time" is evidence of a motivational problem rather than an organisational one.

My question asking how people find the time to go geocaching is one of several questions designed to assess the level of motivation people feel. I am hoping to be able to consolidate all the answers to my motivational questions to built up some sort of picture.

However, thank-you for your feedback. I'll monitor the answers to that question carefully and remove it if it seems to be causing problems. I don't want to put others off as I have you.

All feedback is very welcome. Trying to get together the right questions to answer the questions I have in my research is challenging, and despite piloting the questionnaire, I'm sure to have included some bloopers. Please point them out to me

8.4k · June 8, 2007

My spider sense says this thread will be locked.

Anyhoo, the last official GC survey never went anywhere and the results were NEVER shared with the community.

Will you share with those that participate? Even if you get shut down here?

22.1k · June 8, 2007

Snoogans, the original post properly recites that Groundspeak's permission was obtained to use the Forums for this survey. So that is quite enough about that, thank you. This thread won't be locked.

8.4k · June 8, 2007

Snoogans, the original post properly recites that Groundspeak's permission was obtained to use the Forums for this survey. So that is quite enough about that, thank you. This thread won't be locked.

Yeaaaa, ummm, that's not what I was talking about. I DID read the OP.

I also participated in the survey before anyone posted to this thread.

Edited June 8, 2007 by Snoogans

June 8, 2007

It was not intended to offend. I have done several pilot studies and one of the factors that emerged as critical to the level of engagement with the mobile activities I was looking into was motivation.

I wasn't offended at all. It could be that i seemed to be, due to my poor english. If it was my research, i'd find a way to make relative and abstract matters measurable. I.e. spending time in relation to having free time. Motivation is harder to objectify, but it is an option to measure it by making people rate their motivation on a scale. I'm sure there are already existing measuring standards to rule out abstractions or interpretations. Look into fields of social studies or psychology, you're bound to find those there.

My spider sense says this thread will be locked. (...............) Will you share with those that participate? Even if you get shut down here?

Why would it be locked? He has permission for it... I also hope to see the results of the study.

Good luck on the research!

8.4k · June 8, 2007

This thread won't be locked.

Okayyy, so it won't be locked. I'm bettin' you'll have to throw down some warnings and suspensions.

Where are the results of the last Groundspeak sanctioned survey? Hmmmmm?

Edited June 8, 2007 by Snoogans

June 8, 2007

My spider sense says this thread will be locked.

If anyone knows about a locked thread it'd be Snoogs.

Survey completed.

Edited June 8, 2007 by vtmtnman

3.9k · June 8, 2007

That was an interesting survey. I would love to see the results.

June 8, 2007

Done! Looking forward to the summary.

June 8, 2007

I wasn't offended at all. It could be that i seemed to be, due to my poor english. If it was my research, i'd find a way to make relative and abstract matters measurable. I.e. spending time in relation to having free time. Motivation is harder to objectify, but it is an option to measure it by making people rate their motivation on a scale. I'm sure there are already existing measuring standards to rule out abstractions or interpretations. Look into fields of social studies or psychology, you're bound to find those there.

My spider sense says this thread will be locked. (...............) Will you share with those that participate? Even if you get shut down here?
Why would it be locked? He has permission for it... I also hope to see the results of the study.

Good luck on the research!

Thanks for that Goonies. I am hoping that the likert scale in question 3 will give me a reasonably quantifiable indication of motivation, and that I can use the qualitative text responses to provide specific examples. I like your suggestion about measuring geocaching time in relation to free time. I shall incorporate that into my case studies when I do them.

Analysis will take a while, however I shall either post a summary of the findings that I think are of most interest in this thread, or I'll collate them on my website and post a link to it here.

Thank you all for filling in the survey and posting your views in this thread. I really appreciate it.

June 8, 2007

Apologies to anyone who has tried to fill in the survey over the past 20 minutes and received an "unable to access website" message. The university survey server went down and they've just been rebooting it. It's back online now.

June 8, 2007

Thanks for the survey! I enjoyed it.

June 8, 2007

Done! Hope that helps!

June 8, 2007

happy to help - but PLEASE post results in one format or another as soon as you can/have it done.

2.5k · June 8, 2007

I filled it out as well.

June 8, 2007

Gave it my best shot. Hope it helps...

June 8, 2007

Filled it out. Good luck with your findings!

3.2k · June 8, 2007

Survey completed.

June 8, 2007

Another data point for your research!

June 8, 2007

Completed your questionnaire, hope it helps.

TraderDell

1.6k · June 8, 2007

Done.

1. I hope it helps.

2. Good luck with the degree.

June 8, 2007

Done annnnd......done!

Good luck!

4.7k · June 8, 2007

i just did the survey. i was putting in my contact information and acidentally closed the session. consequently you don't have it. you may reach me through here if you'd like.

June 8, 2007

madcats.

You might also want to post about this over in the UK section of these forums, as not many UK folk venture out of there!

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showforum=35

2.1k · June 8, 2007

Filled it out, good stuff.

One of the questions near the top (select one) allows you to check more than one, and you can't uncheck.

3.9k · June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

:rolleyes:

:blink:

6.5k · June 9, 2007

I don't find the time, I make the time for geocaching. Mental health hours and days are essential to me. :rolleyes:

June 9, 2007

Just completed the survey! I love helping students reach their educational goals :rolleyes: Good luck!

4.7k · June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

you suck.

7.3k · June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

you suck.

I think everyone needs a hug.

1.7k · June 9, 2007

Survey completed. Good luck with your study.

June 9, 2007

Some more data points. TFTS. :rolleyes:

June 9, 2007

Survey Completed. Good luck with your research and well done on pursuing a PhD.

2.2k · June 9, 2007

going to do the survey in a minute, gives me a nexcuse to avoid some more of the OU work i should be doing :anitongue:

June 9, 2007

I submitted one.

Nudecacher

June 9, 2007

Filled it out, good stuff.

One of the questions near the top (select one) allows you to check more than one, and you can't uncheck.

Thanks for pointing that out Maingray. I've identified the renegade question and fixed it.

I tested the survey myself and got others to test it before publishing it - but something just always slips through. :anitongue: I'm really pleased everyone is so proactive about filling in the survey and then feeding comments back through this thread.

I'm getting some really good data back from this and I shall certainly post initial findings back through this thread. Response-rate to online surveys is often quite poor. However, as I suspected, geocachers are an exception to this. As you've taken the time to give me your views, it is only fair that I take the time to get back to you.

I plan to leave the survey live for 3 or 4 weeks and then a full analysis will take some time after that, I dread to think quite how long. However I'll set myself a target of a month to collate the data and do at least some preliminary analyses that I can post here.

Having a target date to get responses back may help stop me from indulging in those all too attractive displacement activities :anitongue:

June 9, 2007

done

June 9, 2007

Done my bit too. Its good that the institutions are taking an interest in this. Perhaps they'll be able to give us a proper reason other than general looneyness as to why we spend hours hunting little plastic boxes and big metal ammo boxes!! :anitongue:

June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

you suck.

Flask, Vinny is notorious for his - how shall I say this? - dry wit and warped sense of humor. I'm sure he meant no harm in his post. He's just that way...

But we love him!

June 9, 2007

Hi Gill...

I've just completed your survey, and have one suggestion: if the answer to Q38 regarding blogging is negative, the respondent should then jump to Q41.

Good luck with your thesis!

cheers,

ve1bvd

June 9, 2007

Did survey, good luck!

June 9, 2007

I completed the survey. Interesting questions. It kind of made us think about some of the things we learned while geocaching. Thanks for the survey TFTS

4.7k · June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

you suck.

Flask, Vinny is notorious for his - how shall I say this? - dry wit and warped sense of humor. I'm sure he meant no harm in his post. He's just that way...

But we love him!

pssst... it was a joke...

June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

you suck.

Flask, Vinny is notorious for his - how shall I say this? - dry wit and warped sense of humor. I'm sure he meant no harm in his post. He's just that way...

But we love him!

pssst... it was a joke...

Maybe for flask,but Vinny on the other hand was probably too used to the wandering and bickering that occurs in well meaning threads.

I blame the shape shifting NWO lackeys. :anitongue:

June 9, 2007

We've filled in our details, good luck with the project. :anitongue:

June 9, 2007

Survey completed, thanks for promoting, spreading the sport.

When will results be made public in the forum?

Tom Fuller

Crescent, OR

June 9, 2007

Survey completed, thanks for promoting, spreading the sport.

When will results be made public in the forum?

Tom Fuller

Crescent, OR

Well, I hate to commit myself, but if I leave the survey running for about 3 weeks, as I originally intended, then I should have all the data by the beginning of July. I could probably quickly extract some of the statistics and post them here fairly quickly. It's the analysis that's going to take time.

So, I guess I could post this preliminary data up here sometime in July.

Probably seems like a long time, but the longer I run the survey, the more data I get and the better the results. :anitongue:

Gill

June 9, 2007

sigh..l This thread is getting more and more vicious and controversial; witness the past ten posts. I give it only 200,000 more posts before the moderators shut this thread down for the rampant of-topic stuff and the blatant hostility.

you suck.

I think everyone needs a hug.

I know I could use one.. :anitongue:

Participate in my PhD Research into Geocaching

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