Design

Design

The study was structured as a digital survey. Creswell (2014) defines survey design as providing a “quantitative or numeric description of trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population” (p. 201). The survey conducted in this study utilizes a mixed-methods approach by implementing open-ended and closed-ended questions to gauge statistics on Communications students’ and alumni’s perspectives on mandatory vaccinations and to examine the influences behind the statistics. The survey’s primary focus was analyzing different perspectives on the implementation of mandatory vaccination for all students and staff at the university. Survey questions were optional and non-invasive of the participant’s right to privacy and confidentiality. The questions centred on demographics (age, year of study, major, etc.) were used to determine any correlative data between background and/or personal context and perspective. Questions centred on perspective were used to examine the breadth and depth of perspectives held by students and alumni. The variation between open-ended and closed-ended questions is relatively balanced between the 15 questions with nine closed-ended and eight open-ended.