Recreation and Leisure Studies

The Background

From visionary beginnings in 1968 and buoyed by a consistent record of innovation, the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies has long enjoyed a reputation for excellence placing it among world leaders in the field.

SRI has collaborated with prominent academic researchers within the department since 2008. SRI has privided data collection technology and other technical resources for Professor Paul Eagles, and Professor Mark Havitz.

Professor Eagles directs the Parks Governance Research group. The research of the group is aimed at better understanding the principles underlying the choice of delivery models of parks, recreation and tourism services in parks in Canada. The group has conducted research focusing on the two most successful provincial park systems in Canada, Ontario and British Columbia.

Professor Havitz has conducted research studies on cross country running. His primary study focuses on a survey and other sources used to compile a comprehensive history of Michigan State University cross country.

Client Needs

  • Collect survey data from stakeholder groups integrating complex academic survey design into an online platform
  • Create an automated process to allow potential survey respondents to sign up for a survey online and complete it immediately after signing up
  • Create a reporting tool to allow the research group to track the progress of survey registrations during the research study
  • Provide real time reports of study progress
  • Provide a cleaned, easy to understand, and validated dataset

SRI Solutions

  • Programmed and hosted web surveys for data collection, successfully integrating complex academic research methodology into the online survey instrument
  • Created a survey sign up page to validate email addresses and immediately provide respondents with a personalized survey link as well as an automatic email notification
  • Created a custom reporting tool to allow researchers to track the number of participants who registered for the study by date
  • Provided cleaned and validated datasets