RESEARCH BRAINTEASER
Please comment on the following statement:
You have been given a school research assignment that asks that you gather qualitative data to assist the school’s cafeteria in planning upcoming menus. Most of your classmates are just going around campus asking people their opinions on menu ideas. You realize that to be of service to the cafeteria (and your growling stomach) you need to better understand what makes people run to or run away from the school’s cafeteria. You decide to put together a focus group of students and staff members.
Question
Why is a focus group a good qualitative approach for this assignment?
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A focus group would be a good idea because we could gather a smaller more controllable sample of students to systematically extract quality data.
ReplyDeleteTell me some other characteristics and/or goals of conducting focus groups?
ReplyDeletefocus groups are usually easy to obtain and it affects those who are gathered because their opinions truly matter. it is also just a segment of the whole target market (the students) and can get a general idea of who likes what and why.
ReplyDeleteThe interactions with respondents can stimulate new thoughts or ideas hat may not arise from one on one interviews at random. The goal of the focus group is to get quality information.
ReplyDeleteRight. The goal is to learn and understand what people have to say and why.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the emphasis is on getting people to talk at length and in detail. That's why we should also ask indirect questions.
When planning a focus group, what are the many items that must be considered? (What would be on your Focus Group To Do list?)
ReplyDeleteSetting, participants, guide(topics to be discussed.
ReplyDeleteand moterator
ReplyDeleteGood start, Correne. Can you give me specifics about those items you mentioned?
ReplyDeletefirst you need a speaker, somebody that knows how to ask questions and keep the focus group on track. but the very first thing to do is gather people, and then place them in a setting where they can be observed and not distracted. make them comfortable with "ice breaker" questions. and then ask them open ended questions and do it all in a timely fashion of 90 minutes on average
ReplyDeleteSetting is a place to conduct it, participants are those willing participate, guide is topics to be discussed and motorator is the person extracting the information.
ReplyDeleteYou both have hit on 5 of the 6 Focus Group To Do items. The last, and probably equally as important To Do, is the focus group report, in which the moderator (done solo or in conjunction with the agency or client) creates a report detailing their observations and suggestions from the focus group.
ReplyDeleteThis week, we will be discussing surveys as an important part of collecting data. This will start a series of lectures that will be a great assistance to you as you work on your semester-long research project.
ReplyDeleteLet’s start out this lecture by taking a survey ourselves! Once you have completed the short survey, please return to this blog site. (Give me a sign that you’re back on the blog like “I’m back”!)
ReplyDeleteWe will discuss the results of the survey in class on Thursday!
To take the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6c6KZZ4awvXMtxSIwgbIDQ_3d_3d
Im back
ReplyDeleteOkay, let's give Frankie a couple more minutes.
ReplyDeletei'm back!!!
ReplyDeleteWe will tabulate the results of the survey and go through the questions in class on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime...
One of the questions in the survey you just took asked you about the types of survey methods available to researchers. Can you name some of the types of survey methods?
questionare, phone, online, person to person
ReplyDeleteinterviews, mall interceptions, phone surveys
ReplyDeleteLooks like you two have done your reading for the week!
ReplyDeleteLet's start with person-to-person surveys. This is also called "door-to-door" interviews. This is no longer widely used in the industry. Why?
People are busy and generally dont want to be bothered, this will effect the outcome of information
ReplyDeletethis requires a person to be able to walk "door-to-door" to people and ask them a moment of their time to answer a few simple questions. most people are impatient and won't give those types of people the time of day. I mean, how many people say "thanks but not thanks" to the missionaries on a daily bases for example.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Correne. Also the costs of conducting door-to-door interviews (i.e. interviewer pay, mileage, etc).
ReplyDeleteAnother form of person-to-person interviews is the Executive Interview. Any thoughts on this type of survey method in terms of what it encompasses?
ReplyDeletethis is more business oriented and not really for the common folk
ReplyDeleteits expensive and difficult to obtain lists of sufficient participants
ReplyDeleteYou are both correct. Executive Interviews involve interviewing business people at their place of business regarding business products/services.
ReplyDeleteThis form of interviewing is moving toward an online format due to costs and businesspeople availability.
this type of interviewing is expensive. the company or business that is being done has to be identified and located. overall it is getting the people to agree to the interview which is done primarily over the phone for convenience purposes.
ReplyDeleteYou both mentioned mall-intercept, telephone and mail surveys, of which we have discussed and are all familiar as we have all been recipients of those survey methods.
ReplyDeleteThe last type of survey method is that of a self-administered questionnaire. What is the benefit of this type of survey?
i thought it was done primarily on the phone instead of online. how are they suppose to find these people online unless they buy their email address when most company emails addresses are internal and used for business only.
ReplyDeleteLow cost
ReplyDeleteself administered questionnaires are personalized and does not involve people to people contact or even a computer. its a bit old fashion.
ReplyDeleteIt has no administer to probe for more answer or make the product look better so you get a straight answer
ReplyDeleteand i agree, low cost and easy to established and set in the desired location. though it is not costly, it does have its disadvantages of attracting peoples attention.
ReplyDeleteWell, by its name, a self-administered questionnaire means that there is no interviewer present. The consumer completes the questionnaire by themselves.
ReplyDeleteThese are used in places where a captive audience exists, such as a mall, ball game, retail store, etc.
These are becoming kiosk-based computer questionnaires with touch screens instead of the old pen-and-pencil method.
Actually, Frankie, the disadvantage you mentioned above is really an advantage. You want to get people's attention to complete your questionnaire.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is a big disadvantage with this method. (Hint, I just talked about it!)
nobody is present to explain things about the surveys
ReplyDeleteDisadvantage is that there is no one there to explain things or clarify open ended questions
ReplyDeletethe open ended questions do not get elaborated on and the answers are often short and to the point with no explanations of reasoning.
ReplyDeleteBingo - you both got it. One advantage of personal interviewing is that you can explain or clarify questions to respondents, or probe respondents to be more detailed in their responses.
ReplyDeleteAs we just experienced ourselves at the start of class today, many researchers are using online surveys to gather facts, opinions and attitudes from consumers.
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting factoid for you: 88% of researchers are conducting online surveys. That is a huge percentage of online survey-taking by consumers!
Let’s look at the advantages of using online surveys as part of your research plan. Who can list some advantages of online surveys (from a researcher’s perspective)?
ReplyDeleteYou can distribute a very large number of surveys, its cost effective and people are captive with less distractions
ReplyDeleteif its convent and part of the check out service or online product order for example, it is easy to conduct and part of the check out if not a follow up of the peoples. sometimes there is an option tab of skipping the survey but people will answer a few questions to continue on good service online.
ReplyDeleteone major advantage is reaching a large target audience online and retrieving information in a timely fashion without them being pressurized. they can also do it quickly so the questions answered are the first things that come to their mind.
ReplyDeleteFrankie, we're thinking beyond the retail environment. Didn't you say you were part of a service that filled out online surveys periodically about a variety of topics? Those are the types of online surveys we're talking about today.
ReplyDeleteYou got the pluses to online surveying:
- Surveys sent to many people at one time
- Results are tabulated as returns arrive
- Cuts traditional survey costs by 25-40%
- Takes less time to complete and with use of graphics, survey more interesting to complete
AND
- You can reach distant or rural populations due to anytime/where access
Now on the flipside, what are some of the drawbacks for researcher’s to rely on online surveys?
ReplyDeleteThere is again, no one to probe fr answers or explain, there is no way to really know whos answering them.
ReplyDeleteGood. What else?
ReplyDeletenobody to clarify any confusion to the questions. it might not be taken seriously or be a person outside the target market.
ReplyDeleteFinding a good sample ie,an accurate sample frame on the net can also be difficult
ReplyDeleteSo far, we have no interviewer present to clarify questions as well as the person taking the survey may not be who you want to talk to.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the biggie with anything online - which is privacy and security?
what if people don't have a computer and they fall into that target market
ReplyDeleteVery good Frankie. I like your use of research terminology - "sample frame"!
ReplyDeleteThat's a another good point, Frankie. Online surveys won't always reach our intended target audience.
ReplyDeletedon't you mean correne? she said "sample frame"
ReplyDeleteSo to recap, the disadvantages of online surveys include:
ReplyDelete- Does not represent entire population
- Security and privacy issues
- Unrestricted sample: anyone who wants to complete survey can
AND
-Researcher can’t clarify/explain open-ended questions
Yes, I'm sorry. Good use of terminology Correne! :)
ReplyDeleteHow many of you have created an online survey before?
ReplyDeletepeople do not want to give up their information like their name, email address etc. it is a big privacy issue because we all hate spam or being bothered by online clutter
ReplyDeletenot me
ReplyDeleteFrankie, have you?
ReplyDeleteI have, but it was more so about "who knew me" the best. a personalized survey for me about me. it was done out of fun not out of seriousness
ReplyDeleteThere are two methods of creating and conducting online surveys for consumers to participate in...
ReplyDeleteThe first involves software designed for questionnaire use. You create your questions and a server distributes the questionnaire to consumers and files answers in database for you to examine upon the survey’s completion.
A great example of this is SurveyMonkey – the creator of the survey we just took. (surveymonkey.com)
The second online method is for the researcher to design their own survey without questionnaire design software.
ReplyDeleteAfter class, check out this site to learn more: Vovici (http://www.vovici.com/survey-solutions/web-survey.aspx).
Good start to our survey discussion today. To be continued on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime...
HOMEWORK REMINDER
- Chapter 5 for Thursday, Feb. 26th
- Chapter 4 questions #3, 5, 6 (create discussion guide only) by Thurs. Feb. 26th
- Chapter 4 “The Parenthood Project” case study questions #1-4 for Thursday, Feb. 26th
- BRING TEXTBOOKS TO CLASS!!!!
Let's move to Ethics now...
ReplyDelete