Case Study - Parks Governance Research Group
Overview
The Parks Governance Group is dedicated towards understanding good governance in the world's parks and protected areas. The world's protected area estate contains the most important ecosystems, habitats and species that occur on the earth's surface.
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 through interviews and online surveys of the various park stakeholders (staff, contractors, visitors, local residents, and members of non-profit organizations) to get a better understanding of how parks, recreation and tourism services are delivered and its implications on governance.
The group has conducted research focusing on the two most successful provincial park systems in Canada, Ontario and British Columbia.
Objectives
- Collect survey data from various park stakeholder groups integrating the complex academic survey design into an online platform
- Create an automated process to allow potential survey respondents to sign up for the survey online and complete it immediately after signing up
- Create a reporting tool to allow the research group to track the progress of survey sign ups during the research study
Solutions
- Programmed and hosted the web survey for data collection in Ontario and Britsh Columbia, integrating the 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 the research group to track the number of participants who signed up for the study by date