The first large-scale online time use survey

A leading method overtaken?

After the early applications in America, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in the 1910s and 1920s, the diary method was supported by UNESCO in the 1960s, making the method truly international.

With the diary method, respondents keep a record of everything they do via a standardised 10-minute diary. Not only recording what they do, but also the location where it happened and with whom they did it.

The result is a nuanced look at the behaviour patterns of people and families in various areas of life. Since that time, the diary research method has been a leading method for the UN for highlighting the issue of unpaid work in developing countries. It is also used for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US and EUROSTAT for examining the cultural differences and trends between countries and states. The context regarding behaviour makes these differences more understandable.

This contextual setting is both the strength and weakness of diary method research. It provides a detailed survey, but collecting data is labour-intensive and hence expensive. As a result, data can only be gathered with significant intervals and usually only on a population level.

A solution involving both an online and a modular strategy

Gathering data online is one obvious solution for reducing costs. However, you need a modular strategy for developing a research method that is both reliable and valid. The MOTUS software was developed to meet this need.

The MOTUS software platform makes it possible from a technical point of view to:

– define the research methods;

• develop online questionnaires
• put together online time registration systems (list of activities, length of intervals in between, number of reference days, etc.)
• allocate context questions to activities and by doing so delve more deeply into specific activities

– establish a research flow that supplies a survey or time registration system in a particular sequence;

– evaluate registered data via algorithms and reminders and have any errors corrected by the respondents themselves;

– carry out the research via a web browser (computer, laptop) or application (smartphone, tablet);

From an administrative point of view there are various possibilities:

– automatically allocate respondents to surveys, spread respondents (randomised) over the survey period, allocate start days, etc.

– monitor and follow up respondents in real-time during the survey via notifications on the screen and/or via automated e-mails and/or text messages.

– store input from respondents immediately, which makes the information usable in follow-up questions.

– track fieldwork via a dashboard

– follow up a longitudinal research set-up and use a behaviour panel

– offer surveys and research in various languages

By doing so, MOTUS succeeds in gathering context-rich behavioural information at a very low cost. It is also tailored to every research question and within every target group.

MOTUS gathers context-rich behavioural information at a very low cost.

MOTUS as a reliable and valid research platform

The aim from the outset was to gain faster and cheaper insights into the behaviour patterns of people and target groups. Not only by translating the traditional diary method into an online method, but also by reinforcing the method by taking a modular approach.

The MOTUS software platform first demonstrated its ability when collecting data from 3,260 respondents in Flanders.

Each respondent:

• completed a socio-demographic preliminary survey
• kept a record of his or her use of time for 7 successive days, and
• to complete the process, filled in a follow-up questionnaire.

The data was collected between January and December 2013. At the same time, the Statistics Belgium division of FPS Economy also conducted a diary-based survey using the traditional pen-and-paper method, in line with EUROSTAT guidelines, this time for one weekday and one weekend day.

A comparative study showed that MOTUS recorded the general behaviour patterns in an equally valid manner, while at the same time it was better in terms of travel movements and media usage. And by collecting the data online, MOTUS also managed to gather more context regarding behaviour – faster and at a lower cost.