Janet Salmons is a network member and a contributing expert to the online team.
There are nearly as many
kinds of research approaches as there are questions to study. While it is the
task of the researcher to match approach to question, it is clear that some
researchers simply prefer one approach over another, and select types of
questions that permit them to carry out the inquiry in the preferred way. I
admit it, I am guilty. While I see the value in all sorts of studies, I would
not be content to crunch Big Data, even if it meant I could generate impressive
maps and diagrams. I want to learn about their experiences first hand. I want
to know why. Why did you make that
choice and not another, why was it important to you, why do you plan to do
things differently in the future? I cannot ask an extant mountain of Big Data
Online interviews allow
researchers to pose questions in a variety of ways with participants anywhere,
at any time. In synchronous interviews we can capture the immediacy and emotion
of the moment, and when we click on the webcam to video conference we can have a
dynamic exchange that is close to being there in person. We can traipse around
a virtual world together or share a desktop or application, and discuss what we
are experiencing. Or we can use a whiteboard to diagram and draw perceptions of
the phenomena. With flexible asynchronous emails we can create an extended
narrative correspondence or text message on the go, and ask participants to
share their observations on site-- perhaps even relaying pictures or maps back
to us. It can be a rich exchange!
And yet, as always in
scholarly research there are more issues and requirements to be considered
including rigour, ethics, and methodological alignment. There is also the
all-important acceptance by dissertation chairs and ethics boards, editors and
peer reviewers. To add to the challenge, many of those who would hold the
study’s fate in their hands are not familiar or comfortable with online methods.
Resources and upcoming events
To help researchers navigate these matters and create
well-designed, coherent studies that merit approval, I have been focusing my
attention on the development of design approaches for online interview methods.
I created the “E-Interview Research Framework,” a holistic, systems-thinking set of
guiding questions and models (Salmons, 2012, 2015). My new book from Sage
Publications, Qualitative
Online Interviews,
is organized using this Framework.
SCoPE, an online community interested in technology, educational research and practice, will host events from May 1 to 16, and additional events will be offered throughout the summer. Visit SCoPE at http://bit.ly/1i7W73j for free registration, webinar log-in information and related resources. Follow @einterview for updates.
Save the dates
Asynchronous
Discussion Forum May 2-16:
·
Teaching Digital Qualitative Interview Methods
·
Designing an (Approvable) Study with Digital Qualitative Interview
Methods
·
Open Discussion and Q & A
Webinars,
May 5 and 12, and June 7:
·
Monday, May 5, 2014 at 17:00:00 Fair and Good? Ethics and Quality in Online
Interview Research
·
Monday, May
12, 2014 at 17:00:00 See, Share, Create: Visual E-Interviews
NSMNSS Tweetchat,
May 8:
·
Thursday,
May 8, 2014 at 14:00:00 5 Tips for Teaching E-Interview Methods. Follow @NSMNSS and include #NSMNSS in all your tweets.
e/merge Africa
Events,
July 21-25: Details TBA
July 21-25: Details TBA
