I have just sent this email to the Office of the MARA's Director of Professional Development and Registration, Glenda Hutch. Feel free to complete the survey and skew the results even more. It's not like OMARA want real information. They just want any old information so that it looks like they are interested in real results. It's really just a triumph of form over substance. If they want proper feedback on what people think about CPD's then why don't they leave the surveys up to private organisations who know how to conduct surveys properly and professionally to extract the right data and information the first time around?
Dear Glenda
With reference to the link in your email below 'CPD participant feedback - Distance Learning':
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ltadnjanmar14I just completed a 'dummy/imposter' survey off the link that you have sent out to CPD participants of LTA. We have a huge number of participants.
I notice three things about this survey which concern me greatly:
1/ Survey Monkey is a non- Australian government based website based in the USA being used to collect information from random and unidentified persons (MARN is optional) regarding Legal Training Australia.
2/ Anyone from anywhere in the world can complete the survey including me as I did just then as a test run.
I just completed the survey as an 'imposter' as a test by clicking on the link which means OMARA's results are already skewed. I can see I am also able to re-do the survey by logging back on and doing it again at a different computer in my office.
3/ I can complete one (1) distance learning CPD module with LTA online, and yet I am able to go to the OMARA Survey Monkey web link and provide feedback regarding every single one of our online subjects if I want to, regardless of whether I have even completed them.
Having a survey and making the link available to anyone who wants to participate is a risky approach as it means the survey designed lacks integrity which in turn means that the results lack validity. In most cases, the people electing to participate are inherently biased in some fashion. What's to stop me from running an active campaign against another provider by using their dedicated link and running an active campaign for my own business by using the link to the LTA survey? The answer is nothing. It is open to being rorted.
I can also see that the OMARA have not created a survey which prevents the following types of 'survey offenders' from participating:
1. “The Daydreamer” - this respondent does not read the questions or stay focused enough to understand what is being asked. Known Accomplices: “The Woolgatherer,” “The Aloof,” “Mr. or Ms. Elsewhere”
2. “The Imposter” - this respondent provides false data to a) bias survey results or b) fraud data to qualify for a survey with an incentive being offered. Known Accomplices: “The Survey Swindler,” “The Con,” “The Pretender”
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