1. CSCI 4163/6610 WINTER 2015

2. Housekeeping  Group membership update

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

4. 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

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

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

7. 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

8. 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?

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. (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

13. 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

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

15. 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

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

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

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

19. 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

20. 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

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

22. 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

23. 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?