CSCI 4163/6610 WINTER 2015

Housekeeping  Group membership update

PSA: Toast Masters  Time  Wednesdays - 6:30 pm (tomorrow!)  Location  Council Chambers, Student Union Building  Cost  Free (for 4 meetings)  Additional Information 

Q1: Interviews are: a) Verbally asking participants questions b) Hearing their point of view in their own words c) Both A & B d) Neither A nor B

Q2: Which type of interview allows you to probe participants’ responses? A) Structured B) Unstructured C) Semi-Structured D) Unstructured and Semi-Structured

Q3: Which type of interview allows you to quantitatively compare responses? A) Structured B) Unstructured C) Semi-Structured D) Structured and Semi-Structured

Q4: Active listening is… A) Making a conscious effort to hear the words a person is saying B) Making an effort to understand the complete message being sent C) Paying attention to the other person very carefully D) All of the above

Observation Exercise  Research topic: Rituals of on-line information seeking behaviour  Questions: What types of information sources are regularly checked? Is it a push or pull paradigm? What is the frequency? What prompts a session to begin? How long does a session usually last? What brings a session to an end (time? Information found? All sources seen?)? Is there multi-tasking?

Observation  Watching people, programs, events, communities, etc.  Used to:  Provide information about real-life situations and circumstances  Assess what is happening  Valuable because you cannot rely on participants’ willingness and ability to furnish information

When is observation useful?  When you want direct information  When you are trying to understand an ongoing behaviour or process  When there is physical evidence, products, or outcomes that can be readily seen  When other data collection methods seem inappropriate

Observations AdvantagesDisadvantages  Most direct measure of behavior  Provides direct information  Easy to complete (?)  Saves time (?)  Can be used in natural or experimental settings  May require training  Observer’s presence may create artificial situation  Potential for bias  Potential to overlook meaningful aspects  Potential for misinterpretation  Difficult to analyze

(If unobtrusive…)  Can see things in their natural context  Can see things that may escape conscious awareness, things that are not seen by others  Can discover things that may have been taken for granted  Can learn about things that people might not be willing to talk about  Low potential for generating observer effects

Major limitations  Potential for bias  Observer bias  Cultural bias (during observation and interpretation)  Reliability  Ease of categorization  Often used in combination with other methods to provide a more thorough account

Types of observation Structured (looking for) Unstructured (looking at) Observing what does not happen may be as important as observing what does happen

Planning  Determine who/what to observe  Determine what aspects will be observed (characteristics, attributes, behaviours, etc.)  Determine when/where observations will be made  Develop the observation record sheet  Pilot test the observation record sheet  Train the observers, practice  Collect information, analyze and interpret

Observations need to be credible  Observation guide  Recording sheet  Checklist  Field notes  Pictures  Video  Some combination of the above

Ecological validity  Is what you are observing representative of usual behaviours?  Unobtrusive?  Task?  Setting?  Tools?

If unobtrusive…  Can be hard to understand why….

Contextual inquiry (Thursday’s topic)  Interviewees are interviewed in their context, when doing their tasks, with as little interference from the interviewer as possible.  Allows probing of “why?”  Can be real-time or record interesting actions for later discussion

Other ways of providing context  If natural observation not possible, can ask them to demonstrate specific tasks of interest  Can provide task scenarios and ask them to perform  “Think aloud” aloud protocols

Other ways of getting observational data  Logging  Screen recording (check out Camtasia)  Trace data

Homework  Assigned reading w/ questions for Thurs  Get your ethics tutorials done and submit certificate before Friday’s lab  Friday’s groups: make plans to show protocol to Hasmeet or I BEFORE Friday!  Make sure you come prepared for Friday (print what needs printing, each group member should know their role)  How many sessions? How many participants will you need? Check in with Hasmeet so he can handle logistics on Friday

Today’s reading  What was the motivation?  What were the research questions?  What was their approach?  Critique their study (what was good? What was bad?)  Recruitment, running the study, analysis  Do you think that their findings are valid?  What would you do differently if you wanted to replicate/extend this research?