International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security

International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security (국제컴퓨터통신보호논문지학회)
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Deconstructing Opinion Survey: A Case Study

  • Alanazi, Entesar (Department of Computer Science College of Computer, Qassim University)
  • Received : 2021.04.05
  • Published : 2021.04.30
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Abstract

Questionnaires and surveys are increasingly being used to collect information from participants of empirical software engineering studies. Usually, such data is analyzed using statistical methods to show an overall picture of participants' agreement or disagreement. In general, the whole survey population is considered as one group with some methods to extract varieties. Sometimes, there are different opinions in the same group, but they are not well discovered. In some cases of the analysis, the population may be divided into subgroups according to some data. The opinions of different segments of the population may be the same. Even though the existing approach can capture the general trends, there is a risk that the opinions of different sub-groups are lost. The problem becomes more complex in longitudinal studies where minority opinions might fade over time. Longitudinal survey data may include several interesting patterns that can be extracted using a clustering process. It can discover new information and give attention to different opinions. We suggest using a data mining approach to finding the diversity among the different groups in longitudinal studies. Our study shows that diversity can be revealed and tracked over time using the clustering approach, and the minorities have an opportunity to be heard.

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Acknowledgement

I gratefully acknowledge Qassim University, represented by the Deanship of Scientific Research, on the material support for this research under the number (3984-coc-2018-1-14-S) during the academic year 1439 AH/2018 AD. The author would like to thank Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Hassan, Department of Computer Science, Qassim University for his supervision of this study.

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