Advantages

Participants are requested to answer survey questions with recorded videos submitted online from the comfort of their own homes. Video surveys have a number of benefits as a result of this:

• A video format is more likely to generate open-ended responses and provide a more distinct data sample for the researcher to evaluate.
• Video participants are more likely to answer honestly as they're in comfortable surroundings rather than in an unfamiliar facility.
• As the videos are automatically transcribed into text and attached to each specific question, online video surveys can be easily analyzed. This makes reviewing transcripts and comparing responses simpler for the researcher.
• As respondents can now access video platforms via the internet, in-person researchers have access to a much larger pool of active volunteers than in the past.
• Instead of weeks or months, results from video responses can be captured in hours or minutes.
• Online video surveys eliminate response biases.

Disadvantages

Besides their numerous benefits, video surveys have some drawbacks in terms of both viewing and production:

• Similar to online surveys, the researcher is unable to reply to the participant's responses in real-time.
• The researcher misses the survey's "discussion" aspect, which can be useful in gaining a better understanding of the participant's point of view.
• Participants may find it challenging to make videos in a noisy environment.
• The video may become distorted if the viewer has a slow internet connection. One possible solution to this problem is to save the video as a temporary file before playing it. Alternatively, it may be preferable to provide the user with the option to opt-out.

In spite of these limitations, researchers are likely to find video surveys to be a helpful addition to their survey repertoire.