1. Access course: Designing your research project
Ben
Suay M. Ozkula Ben Silvester Luke Shoveller
Medway campus

2. Today DAY II Recap (incl. elevator pitch) 6.25 Selecting a method 6.40
Individual methods
Quantitative
Surveys
Qualitative
Interviews
Ethnography
Focus groups
Things to consider
Reliability & validity
Sampling
Ethics
Data analysis
Ben

3. Day II
Suay

4. The elevator pitch Can you explain your research topic in 3 minutes?
Suay 20

5. Recap
Luke

6. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Methods
Quantitative methods:
Concerned with counting and measuring aspects of social life
Data is numerical
Involves statistical analysis of data
Qualitative methods:
Concerned with producing rich descriptions and exploring social actors’ meanings and interpretations
Data is subjective, not numerical
Involves interpretive analysis of data
Luke

7. Methods More Qualitative More Quantitative Participant observation
Focus groups / workshops
Structured interviews
Luke
More Qualitative
More Quantitative
Unstructured interviews
Semi-structured interviews
Surveys

8. Data collection Quantitative methods Qualitative methods Surveys
Interviews (structured)
Experiments
Qualitative methods
Interviews (informal, unstructured, semi-structured)
Ethnography / participant observation
Focus groups
Document analysis
Luke

9. Selecting a method
Ben

10. How do you decide on a research tool?
What will “work” for your study
Need to justify your choice of method(s)
Ben

11. Exercise: What method would you choose?
Do Muslim people in London perceive higher levels of racism since the Paris attacks of 13th Nov 2015?
Do females aged score higher than adult males aged on the WAIS-III? (The WAIS-III is a standardized intelligence test.)
How are online users experiencing or addressing privacy issues on Facebook and Twitter?
How are Syrian refugee children “coping” with / experiencing learning at school in the UK (ages 5-15)?
Ben

12. Individual methods: Quantitative
Suay

13. Surveys
Is a data collection tool used to gather information about individuals. Surveys are commonly used in research to collect self-report data from study participants. A survey may focus on factual information about individuals, or it might aim to collect the opinions of the survey takers
Questionnaires as the physical copy of the survey
Advantages
Wide representation
Numerical data
Disadvantages
Not exploratory or in-depth
Types of Survey Data Collection
Suay

14. Questionnaire tips List the points of interest
Develop question(s) for each point of interest
Check – are questions understandable and relevant? (Dos)
Are they leading, misleading, unclear, or composite? (Don’ts)
Question order / grouping – think about flow
Use a range (but not too many) question types (e.g. closed checklist, ranking, scales)
If you use paper:
Use a clear layout – font size, paper colour, single-sided
Online surveys:
There are free tools: surveymonkey.com
Do a pilot (check that everything works!)
Suay

15. Surveys Example survey: In groups, have a look at the survey.
Criticize it.
Suay

16. Individual methods: Qualitative
Luke

17. Qualitative interviews
Informal
Unstructured
Semi-structured
Luke

18. Interview Tips Prior to the interview: During the interview:
Pay attention to the venue
Organise the meeting around the interviewee
During the interview:
Introduce yourself and your research (ethics)
Use open questions
Start broad, narrow down, end broad
Use prompts, encouraging noises
Take notes
Manage the time / group dynamics
Thank them !
Luke

19. Interview Tips Group work
You are the interviewer. Continue with the next question.
Interviewer: Tell me about your first experience with the new software.
Respondent: I wasn’t sure at first, but yeah, I guess later it was alright sort of.
_______________
Interviewer: Have you ever participated in / signed an online petition?
Respondent: Yes. Well, kind of. I used one of those servers, but also online video, sousveillance, recording, hacked a forum, a few times. Using, creating, all that sort.
Luke

20. Ethnography / participant observation
Learning about people and their activities by observing them / being part of their community over a longer period of time.
Tips:
Spend a longer period of time in the field
Take notes on what people say and do
Try to see beyond the obvious; try to see what the other participants cannot see
Luke

21. Ethnography / participant observation
Group work:
Read following field notes & find themes.
Participant A uses the new software Hexagon after 2 months of training. After two failures in retrieving the sought data he closes the programme and goes back to the previous software. He says: “Management tells us this is an improvement, but I don’t see it. I don’t get it, don’t understand it. And then I just go back to what we used before and no one knows it anyway. So much for progress.”
Participant B has been using the new software for 2 weeks. He says: “People say they don’t get the new software, but I don’t buy it. I think people of a particular generation they just don’t want that change. They just don’t want it to work.”
Luke

22. Focus groups
Data is collected through a semi-structured group interview/discussion process, moderated by the researcher. Usually used to collect data on a specific topic, with participants who have experience/know about it.
Why/when to use it:
To explore a topic that is difficult to observe (not easy to gain access)
When you want to collect a concentrated set of observations in a short time span
To ascertain perspectives and experiences from people on a topic, particularly when these are people who might otherwise be marginalized
Ben

23. Other possible qualitative methods
Document analysis, i.e. written documents (public records, private papers, biography), photographs, posters, maps, artefacts, films, etc.
Ben

24. Things to consider
Ben

25. Reliability
Consistency of data collection, analysis and interpretation
Could independent researchers reproduce the study and obtain the same (or similar) results?
Ben

26. Validity
The validity of our design, that is, the quality of measuring precisely what we intend to measure
Can your results describe or apply to a more general picture?
Have you taken alternative explanations and arguments into consideration?
Ben

27. Sampling Who / what is to be included in your study?
Is your sample representative?
Where do you get your sample from?
Who can you speak to?
Will you be able to get access?
Ben

28. Ethics
“Ethics serve to identify good, desirable or acceptable conduct and provide reasons for those considerations (National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans (1999).”
Physical and psychological welfare of participants
Respect for privacy
Use of deception
Informed consent
Debrief
Suay
Examples of research that might be considered unethical?

29. Data analysis Remember: you need to analyse your data ! Quantitative:
Look at the distribution of numbers and patterns
Qualitative:
Look for common themes in your data
Luke

30. Questions?
Ben

31. Homework: Bring in a piece of writing that relates to your topic (e. g
Homework: Bring in a piece of writing that relates to your topic (e.g. journal article or book on your topic).
Suay

32. Next: - Prepare your research - See you again next week ! Good luck ! 
Luke