How projectable is a sample from an online panel?
In today’s world of tight budgets and time lines, the speed and often lower costs of a web survey make it a popular choice for many studies. When the population that you are interested in studying is appropriate for an internet methodology, web surveys, especially among members of established panels, can be a quick and easy way to conduct research. It is important, however, to understand how the panel as the source of your sample should be viewed. Because a panel consists of individuals who have chosen to join the panel (and not those who elected not to join or never had the opportunity to do so), survey results from a sample of those individuals are only directly projectable to the panel not the total population. Because respondents from a web panel sample do not fit the requirements of a random probability sample, statistically speaking, survey results should not be evaluated using error range calculations. This, however, is not to say that results from a web survey of panel members
