Like a chat room, a group meets online in a focus group "room" to discuss a predetermined public health issue. One of our trained focus group moderators begins the group with a briefing on focus group etiquette then leads the discussion for a set amount of time. We have found that conducting focus groups online has several advantages over in-person focus groups, including: increased anonymity for participants, the ability to engage participants from several regions or countries, automatic creation of focus group transcripts, and decreased costs.

Online polls are single or multiple item questions that can be tallied and displayed immediately. Such polls can be used to raise awareness of a public health issue or to increase interactivity and interest of a website.

Online surveys are multi-item questionnaires. Unlike polls, survey results are not revealed to respondents or others until all data collection is complete. In the case of online surveys, the responses can be downloaded directly into analytic software. This saves time and staff resources as well as eliminating data entry errors.

A Delphi study is a consensus development process that gathers information from the same group of people over several rounds of data collection. Usually, the rounds are focused on a series of processes that build on each other: 1) brainstorming; 2) clarification and refinement; and 3) prioritization based on one or more criteria of interest.

Delphi studies have traditionally taken place through the mail. Data collection lasted several weeks and often resulted in participant attrition. We have conducted both asynchronous and synchronous Delphi studies online. Both strategies reduce the cost of mail-based efforts. Attrition can be reduced through email reminders for asynchronous Delphi studies as well. Both attrition and time is reduced through synchronous Delphi processes, where participants meet online and fill out successive survey forms.