Quota sampling method in online household surveys

The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed people's activities in many aspects of human life, including how to conduct field surveys as part of research projects. The pandemic could substantially increase research expenses because the execution of surveys is limited by the activity restrictions imposed by the government. Field surveys during the pandemic are no longer flexible because for safety reasons, both the surveyor and the surveyed participant should be negative for Covid-19 by taking PCR tests. This condition could be problematic because research involving household samples is usually characterized by large sample sizes and wide coverage areas. The survey is also usually conducted directly in households to provide better and more accurate results. This article describes an alternative method for obtaining a representative sample of households using an internet-based survey at an affordable cost without ignoring the validity of the survey. This method can be widely implemented in social and economic field studies.•The sampling method proposed for household research is quota sampling, with the strict application of proportions or controlled quotas.•Recruiting local enumerators and selecting respondents based on the criteria is a tool to ease the validation process and quota control of respondents.