MOTUS: Modular online Time-Use Survey

Paper-and-pencil diary research has a very high cost per respondent when taking into account multiple visits of interviewers, entering the data, cleaning and coding. For example, in the Flemish 2004 time-use study, these costs came to €265 per respondent. High costs and low response rates are some of the main concerns for the Harmonised European Time Use Survey (HETUS). To overcome these problems, MOTUS was created as a pilot-project to collect time-use data by means of online registration methods. MOTUS aims to reduce
the high costs of paper-and-pencil diary research, and at the same time tries to enlarge the feasibility of this research method. The data collection takes place between January 2013 and December 2013 and includes 40,000 respondents (18-75y) that live in Belgium (Flanders region). One of the main goals of this pilot study is to assess the comparability between online time-use data and paper-and pencil research. To do this, the time-span of the data collection runs parallel with an EUROSTAT-minded paper-and-pencil time-use survey carried out by the Federal Public Service Economy. This paper dresses the obstacles of online time-use registration, as well as opportunities that come with an online time-use registration method.