ENACTED METHODS ONLINE: USING VISUAL AND PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES IN THE DIGITAL AGE Janet Salmons, PhD

 Introductions  Overview: Enacted Methods Online  Overview: Visual Methods  Exercise you can use: Visual Methods  Overview: Participatory Methods  Exercise you can use: Vignette- Based Role Play  Q & A AGEND A

The Doing Qualitative Research Online Virtual Book Tour visits Janet Salmons,

We will take an holistic, systems-thinking approach to qualitative research that honors conventions of qualitative research while considering implications of using interactive, mobile, visually dynamic technologies to collect data.

EXTANT, ELICITED OR ENACTED METHODS FOR ONLINE RESEARCH

GENERATING DATA WITH ENACTED METHODS  Enacted: The term enacted refers to approaches for generating data through some kind of online activity that engages researcher and participant in the generation of data. The researcher collaborates with consenting participants.

WHY USE ELICITATION METHODS TO COLLECT DATA?  When extant data is incomplete or missing…  When extant data is raises new questions…  When trying to understand how individuals understand or describe their experiences with the phenomena being investigated…

WHY USE ENACTED METHODS TO GENERATE DATA?  When studying sensitive topics…  When studying complex or abstract questions…  When trying to understand how someone would respond to a particular situation…  When researching populations with different language or verbal skills…  When studying youth…

HOW DOES DATA EMERGE? Data may be captured or collected within the technology used for the research setting, or external to the setting in journals or forums established for this purpose. Data can include:  Participants’ recorded behaviors, choices, actions or reactions, logs or archives of posts or chats captured by the software used for the research setting  Participants’ reflections or journal entries in the form of narratives, drawings or links to online materials they selected during the research event  Researcher’s observations (participant or naturalistic) of the events captured in notes, images or screenshots.  Researcher’s collection of digital artifacts, and/or  Interviews, focus groups or questionnaires conducted in conjunction with the research event.

Why use visual methods?

TYPOLOGY OF ONLINE VISUAL METHODS Researchers can do the following online... Transmit images View images Navigate visual environments Generate images... to achieve these kinds of research purposes Visual communication Visual elicitation Visual collaboration

Research Purposes Visual communication Use visual means to convey complex or abstract ideas, relationships or examples. Visual elicitation Share visual stimuli to encourage recall, thought & imagination. Visual collaboration Generate visual representations during the study.

MESHING THE MODELS Enacted Collaborating with participant(s) in interactive research events to generate rich data. Elicited Using elicitation techniques in online interviews. Extant Collecting and analyzing images or media posted online.

Researchers can do the following... Transmit images View images Navigate visual environments Generate images Using interactive, mobile technologies Send pictures, maps, media or links in text message, or post. Use live webcam. See images sent or posted. Review with participant in web conference or videoconference Immerse in software, virtual worlds or games. Share whiteboards or other drawing applications.

SELECTING THE TECHNOLOGY AND SETTING FOR ENACTED RESEARCH

VISUAL COMMUNICATION Use a shared whiteboard or shared screen, to view, annotate and discuss graphics, images, digital artifacts, or maps.

VISUAL ELICITATION Images are transmitted by researcher and viewed together. Leader Member

Navigation Within a visually-rich virtual setting.

VISUAL COLLABORATI ON Interacting with participants to generate visual data using drawing tools in a shared whiteboard.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION I walked over to this grocery store this morning and took a look inside… ‘this is what passes for a grocery store around here?! Four bananas and two onions were all that could be seen in this small little corner store. It’s quite sad, there were more bags of chips and chocolate bars than there was produce, and a 2 litre carton of milk was $3.45. What the I can get a 4 litre jug of milk by my house for around the same price. I have nothing against this corner grocery store and I got to thinking that the people that own and operate it have the same food security issues as the rest of the neighbourhood. They are all victims of their environment and the racism that has built it to be what it is today. Photovoice is a participatory action research method that involves asking participants to take and share photographs, and diary narratives. Can also be combined with locative data, as virtual “walking interview.”

CONSISTENCY, FLEXIBILITY, AND VISUAL RESEARCH APPROACHES

EXERCISE YOU CAN USE Use four different approaches to explore the following question: What did you experience in your travels from your home to this class or meeting? 1.Verbal questioning 2.Eliciting responses with photographs 3.Generating responses by annotating graphics 4.Generating responses by drawing

USING PARTICIPATORY METHODS ONLINE Field experiments, use of “micro-worlds” for simulations Games Vignette, Scenario or Problem-Based Role-Plays

The researchers created a private blog and discussion forum where young people could post in response to researchers’ prompts. “A Virtual Canvas"— Designing a Blog Site to Research Young Muslims' Friendships & Identities” Orla McGarry, Brian William McGrath “Unlike other forms of social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, the blog site was specifically designed for the sample of youth, some of whom were existing friends while others were students in the same school but not close friends. The purpose was to provide research participants with a space to engage with other Muslim youth and to offer insights on their own lives; however they wished to reveal these” (p.2). McGarry, Orla & McGrath, Brian (2012). "A Virtual Canvas"—Designing a Blog Site to Research Young Muslims' Friendships & Identities [58 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 14(1), Art.1,.

“Collaboration Through Simulation: Pilot Implementation of an Online 3D Environment” Jim Scullion, Daniel Livingstone, and Mark Stansfield  “All agreed that the prospect of involvement in a 3D virtual world as part of formal learning was of interest. Thus, the UNITE environment provided a stimulating, engaging, and challenging environment in which learners could develop their own processes in reaching a solution, as well as articulate their knowledge and thinking using a range of facilities and processes” (p. 404). Scullion, J., Livingstone, D., & Stansfield, M. (2014). Collaboration Through simulation: Pilot implementation of an online 3D environment. Simulation & Gaming. doi: / The researchers created a virtual environment where participants interacted to accomplish learning tasks. This observation was followed by a focus group.

VIGNETTE OR PROBLEM-BASED ROLE PLAY Vignettes in online role-plays improve realism and increase the level of immersion in the situation. These types of presentation methods are aimed at engaging participants’ senses more fully…and fully experience information that would be impossible to implement in a more traditional written scenario. ( Pierce & Aguinis, 1997)

PREPARE VIGNETTES CAREFULLY Jenkins et al. (2010, p. 96) point to the importance of plausibility in constructing vignettes: Scenarios that are viewed by participants as highly plausible are more likely to produce rich data on how actors interpret lived-experiences than those which invite astonishment, incredulity or disbelief. As such, the more plausible the protagonist’s situation is in a vignette, the greater the likelihood of interviewees being able to put themselves in the character’s place.

EXERCISE YOU CAN USE Role-play to explore this research question: How do conflicts based on students’ political and social perspectives influence learning experiences in business management courses?

SUMMARY  Why use elicited or enacted approaches online?  What visual approaches can we use to create highly- interactive and collaborative research events?  How can we engage participants with methods that move beyond the usual question-and-answer style of data collection?

Questions

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