Cases in Online Interview Research: Feb 20 - Mar 3, 2012

A TLT FridayLive! on Ethical E-Research

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:33:14 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

Here's a follow on event to the Cases in Online Interview Research seminar that will be of interest. Please spread the word!

Ethical E-Research: From Class Projects to Thesis/Dissertation Research

May 11, 2:00 – 3:00 PM EDT (11:00 - noon PDT)

This session will focus on e-interview research in class projects that prepare students for more formal thesis/dissertation research later. The webinar will be relevant to undergraduate through graduate instructors, or instructional designers, librarians, and/or teaching center staff.

More details:
http://blog.vision2lead.com/2012/05/01/free-ethical-e-research-webinar/

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:27:57 GMT

by ILA ALLEN.

Hi Nick,

My planned research is a virtual community of practice (VCoP)/doctoral support group. The doctoral students are at various phases in the dissertation process. My methodology is netnography (online ethnography) just in case you are not familiar with it. The premise of the study is to analyze why these doctoral students seek peer-to-peer help in a VCoP outside of ther home institution. I will be a participant-observer and the community has about 950 active members. I would have loved to conduct this in Second Life but I found it a bit hard to navigate (user issues :-) and need to take more time to become more involved. Thanks for asking!

Ila

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:48:51 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

I generally suggest a consistent approach. So either use the video, or not. Advantages, besides non-verbal cues, include the greater potential for synchronicity...in Cases I discuss the degree of focus regardless of whether or not the tools allow for real-time exchange. Simply, if you can see the person you know they are there paying attention, and not trying to chat with 3 other people! For one thing, you then know whether the person is thinking about the answer, or doing something else.

I think the visual exchange helps to create a natural exchange and build trust and rapport. So even if you are not specifically collecting data about the nonverbal cues, facial expressions etc., you can use the video part to further your process.

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:23:30 GMT

by Nicholas Bowskill.

David, you are really welcome and I'm glad if it helped. Let me know how it went if you do adopt that approach. I think its really interesting looking at this kind of setup where an organisation like Scope hosts public/open seminars. You are welcome to use my comments as data but there is, in some contexts, a whole raft of issues to do with ethics here.

For instance, I would be thinking about how you would understand the data from different sources in such settings. By this I mean, who owns it or does not own it and for what purposes might it be used? You might also ask about my rights to regard this as usable data versus yours or anyone elses. These are potentially big issues because they raise different perspectives on the notion of giving and obtaining consent for such data to be used. Are we opening up new ethical issues if we regard this as 'open' data? I am working on a project and co-writing materials that would argue that we are already creating new ethical issues in these new formats and environments. It's really interesting actually (well it is to someone as sad as me anyway).

Anyway, these are all interesting issues but for now you may have enough stuff to deal with ;-) Good luck with it all and have fun. Let me know how it goes if you use it as well.

Nick

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:13:27 GMT

by Nicholas Bowskill.

You're really welcome Ila and good luck with it. I should also have mentioned that before any of that is done it should go past your equivalent of an ethics committee for approval. If it involves other organisations or universities then they should be invited to approve it as well before continuing. A lot depends upon the context in which you carry out your research.

Also when you've briefed the interviewee you should let them know that they are welcome to withdraw from the research interview at any time during the interview with no consequences for them or their work.

Coincidentally, I am involved in writing some guidelines for ethics in social media and other technologies. That would include student-generated materials, immersive environments like Second Life etc. Those environments can add substantially to the ethical issues raised for researchers. That could constitute a whole seminar or course on their own so I won't drag on about it here.

It would be interesting to me if you would like to share something more about your context and your planned research. Who are your audience/sample, for instance?

Either way, the very best of luck and enjoy it too. I think the fieldwork is often the most fun initially.

Nick

Recording for today's Webinar - E-Interview Research: Lessons and Tips

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 04:53:46 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

What a fascinating webinar today! Thanks again, Janet, and the chapter authors who shared their e-interview experiences: Ann, Wendy, and Nellie.

Here is a link to the recording for those who missed the session, or would like to revisit:

https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-03-01.1222.M.AC456DEF2B5841109A2E4E2783A336.vcr&sid=727

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:35:03 GMT

by ILA ALLEN.

Hi Janet,

I appreciate the thorough tips. I have yet to encounter Capella's IRB but it will be happening soon. I do find this phenomenon of online research & interviewing so fascinating and glad I am able to participate in it. I know it is still fairly new to the research arena but it grows everyday. I have defined and described my target population and it is a total virtual community and the population is world-wide. I may do what Nellie did and omit the video part (or just have it as an option) and just use audio but will get permission to do both. The webinar was very informing as well.

Thanks

Ila

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:21:47 GMT

by ILA ALLEN.

Hi Nick,

I really appreciate the information and the outline you provided and needless to say I will keep it close at hand. I know interviewing cannot be perfect but I do not want to make as few mistakes as possible when it comes to the participants. I want to be prepared as best I can. This is unknown territory for me so I am gathering as much information as I can.

Thx

Ila

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:38:24 GMT

by David Porter.

Really like the process you outline, Nicholas. Thanks for making the process explicit.

I'll use your process myself.

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:51:58 GMT

by Nicholas Bowskill.

Hi Ila,

I think ethics is a really important point. I've done a number of interviews over Skype for research. There may be issues in how you prepare for these interviews as well as how you conduct them. For example, one case I had required obtaining phone or email contact details to organise the skype interview. Some students gave their mobile phone numbers so there are ethical issues in storing and using that personal information. Then there are ethical issues in how many times you contact them before they might see it as being a nuisance. I store all that information on record to protect everyone involved.

When you organise a skype interview I start by reading a statement setting out the purpose, duration and structure of the interview and I tell them how the data will be transcribed and stored and who will have access to it. I then provide them with contact details verbally and by email/SMS afterwards so they know who to contact if they have any issues over the way the research is being conducted.

Only once that's been done do I actually do the interview. After that its just like a phone call (plus or minus any pictures). There are a whole other set of ethical issues raised when you don't know the interviewee but I'll save that for another time maybe.

Nick

University of Glasgow

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:21:02 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

While there are common guidelines, members of IRB committees rotate so some members may have more e-research background than others. I advocate for very clear explanations of the research design and intentions so anyone can understand it.

The CITI Modules include one on Internet Research that includes some basic aspects of Internet research ethics.

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:58:39 GMT

by ILA ALLEN.

ok, so I left off the last part of the post. I was asking if the IRB is current with online research, virtual communities, etc? Do they have any information in this area where one can go read about it? I ask becasue the Internet is really a hot bed for research and I do not know much about the IRB but do know you have to get past them. It would be nice to think that they are well versed in all aspects of research as it evolves.

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:35:28 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Each university will have its own interpretation of research ethics when it comes to online interviews. To improve your ability to succeed with your Institutional Review Board approval, here are a few tips:

How will you use the webcam? Clearly define how you plan to use visual data. You can see the person-- how will you use those observations? Are you interested in non-verbal signals and affective responses? You could choose, for example, to review the recorded interview and use a notation system to record types of non-verbal expressions that are conveyed throughout the interview.

Or, you could be looking for other visual information about the setting, what you can see in the interview. (Perhaps you are studying home office workers and work-life balance, and your participants use the webcam to show you around....)

If you are choosing Skype to do research that includes visual data, you need to explain it in your research design and in your recruitment/consent documents. If you are simply planning to focus on audio, or even audio with notes in text chat, then you will need to explain how you will bracket your own impressions of the participant in the video window-- or simply use voice only, essentially like a phone interview.
Does your target population have access to Skype? In the opening webinar I spoke about the difference between using online interviews to research online phenomena or "real world" phenomena. If you are studying something Internet-related you can assume that the participants have online access etc. If you are studying something else, you need to be sure you are not skewing the sample by choosing online interviews. I'd suggest, in that case, describing your target sample (i.e. high school social studies teachers in rural areas, small-business retailers) then look for information about online access and usage for that group to support your rationale for using Skype for the interview.

If you want everyone to use a webcam, you'll want to include that in your inclusion criteria for participation.

Hope these points help. FYI, Online Interviews in Real Time contains an entire chapter on research ethics, and "Ethics Tips" are included in all the chapters.

Best,

Janet

Re: Part 3: Interviews and Observations: Conducting Research in Virtual Worlds.

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:15:17 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Interested in interviews conducted in virtual worlds? Join me and Cases contributor Jonathan Richter for an in-world presentation and discussion: “Studying the (Virtual) World of (Virtual) Work”

Wed, March 21, 1pm SLT.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:43:02 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

E-Panel webinar on e-interviews: Join me today with Cases in Online Interview Research contributors Allison Deegan (Ch. 3), Ann Randall (Ch. 5), Wendy K-Gauthier (Ch. 8), Lynn Wilson(Ch. 9) & Nellie Deutsch (Ch. 10). We'll discuss what we learned from our research and answer your questions.

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/meeting.jnlp?sid=727&password=M.187122BE1330F682CFBDD4C3A712C3

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:41:21 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Welcome Mary! See the info posted in the other threads and post your questions...we'll be happy to give you some ideas about how to proceed.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:43:35 GMT

by Mary ALLBRIGHT.

I am a doctorate student in education curriculum & instruction. My dissertation topic is what are the barriers to rural students accessing higher education. My study will be qualitative in nature and will cover schools from 12 counties in the Arkansas Delta Region. My participants will be 11th and 12th graders, school guidance counselors, and parents of the junior and senior students. I hope to learn a lot from this workshop and have purchased the book Cases in Online Interview Research as well. I hope to do a lot of my face to face interviews online. Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated.

Re: Tomorrow's Webinar= E-Interview Research: Lessons and Tips

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:52:57 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

I think our announcements about tomorrow's webinar crossed paths in cyberspace! :-)

Here's the link to the SCoPE Blackboard Collaborate room:

https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.187122BE1330F682CFBDD4C3A712C3&sid=727

Tomorrow's Webinar= E-Interview Research: Lessons and Tips

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:00:12 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Tomorrow's Webinar= E-Interview Research: Lessons Learned and Tips for Success

Join Janet Salmons and Cases in Online Interview Research. We'll discuss what we learned from our research and answer your questions. Feel free to post questions here, so we can be sure to cover them in the webinar!

Thursday, March 1, 2012 12pm Pacific, GMT-8 (see your time zone)

The log in link will be posted here tomorrow!

Links to the chapters

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:38:44 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

Bronwyn, it might have been a "bit.ly" problem.

This is the link Janet posted: http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235442#tabview=toc

Here's a link ro the chapters that are available for download: http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235442#tabview=samples

March 1 Web Conference: E-Interview Research: Lessons Learned and Tips for Success

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:14:54 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

Reminder! We have our second webinar tomorrow. I hope you will all join us.

When: Thursday, March 1, 12pm Pacific (see your time zone)

Where: SCoPE Blackboard Collaborate room

This is an open invitation so please spread the word! Even if you weren't able to participate in the first webinar and this forum discussion, you should still come!

editing note: added webinar title

Re: Part 2. Interviews and Postings: Conducting Research with Social Media

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:29:01 GMT

by bronwyn hegarty.

Hi Janet

the links to the chapters dont appear to work for me.

Bronwyn

Re: Part 1. E-Interview Research Framework

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:22:35 GMT

by bronwyn hegarty.

Hi Janet

The link to the recorded introduction did not work for me nor did the link to the chapter. :)

Bronwyn

Re: Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 17:59:57 GMT

by ILA ALLEN.

With regard to interviewing and Skype how does IRB perceive this in terms of consent? I will be requesting my participants to fill out informed consents and treat it as a face-to-face interview. If anybody has done this I would like to know. Also, is IRB

I have been following the threads but have to work on my revisions from the SMR reviewer so I am swamped.

Thanks

Ila

Re: Hello from Bron

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:30:34 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Welcome Bron and Suzanne!

Bron, I just posted a thread about videoconferencing and interviews. I hope you will share your experiences and what you learned from the process of planning and conducting interviews in SKYPE.

Best,

Janet

Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:28:24 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Welcome to Part 4: Visual and Verbal Interviews: Conducting Research in Meeting or Videoconference Spaces!
This is a Q & A and discussion about Chapters 8-10.

The researchers for these chapters chose to use videocalls-- such as Skype- or online meeting spaces- such as Elluminate (now BlackBoard Collaborate) or some combination of technologies.

Videocalls allow researcher and participant to see each other. The researcher may use this exchange to observe the participant and collect data about non-verbal cues, affective responses and/or expressions. The chat area can also be used for posting questions or sharing links or other notes related to the interview.

Or the researcher can simply use it as a free VOIP communication for audio, when telephone interviews are too expensive.

The multichannel meeting space contains all of the above and more, in terms of communications options.It allows for videoconferencing and chat. As well, the shared whiteboard allows for many other interview options.The web tour function allows researcher or participant to view and discuss websites that represent some aspect of the research phenomenon

One element of the E-interview Research Framework is the Typology of Online Visual Interview Methods. This model explains that research participants can share and view images of the phenomena of the study, or generate images within the interview. These approaches can be used to communicate abstract ideas with visuals such as diagrams or visual maps. Visual elicitation techniques common to fields like sociology and anthropology can be used, with images or media generated by researcher or participants. Visual generation, creating images within the interview, allows participants to respond visually to the question, drawing or mapping a response to the interview question. Some of these techniques are used in the interviews conducted by contributors to Cases in Online Interview Research.

If you are interested in visual interviews, please note that an entire chapter of Online Interviews in Real Time is dedicated to the topic. Also, I recently recorded a presentation made at the TQR conference. You can view the presentation and download the handout.

Please post your thoughts and questions about using live, visual ICTs for research interviews? If you've conducted interviews using these tools-- or are considering it-- please share your ideas so we can learn about them.

Re: Hello from Bron

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 02:33:24 GMT

by bronwyn hegarty.

Hello everyone. I have been following and keep putting off clicking the submit button to introduce myself. I am an Educational Developer at Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, new Zealand in the Educational Development Centre.

I have recently submitted my Doctorate in Education so the waiting game is in progress. During my research I interviewed some participants using Skype, and also used telephone interviewing. I was really interested to hear about the options for interviewing presented in the webinar. I had never thought of using a virtual world to interview.

I am very interested to join the discussions and find out what everyone is doing. You can read more about me on my blog and on my profile page in WikiEducator. Bron

Re: Part 1. E-Interview Research Framework

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:42:40 GMT

by Danielle Pitzer Brandon.

Greetings all,

I am sorry I was unable to attend the webinar on Thursday. Upon viewing it yesterday it seemed to be highly informative. I have provided a snapshot of my dissertation study below. I welcome your comments, suggestions or questions as I am currently editing my dissertation proposal for submission to scientific merit review next week.

Aligning Purpose and Design

Epistemology – Constructivism

Methodology – Grounded Theory

Research Question: How does ethical leaders’ behavior impact employee organizational citizenship behavior?

Methods – initial questionnaire but primarily 1:1 in-depth interviews

Theories –

Formal: organizational behavior

Field of Study: ethical leadership theory and organizational citizenship behavior

theory

Emerging: motivators and/or de-motivators related to consenting participants’ interpretations of experiences with ethical or unethical behavior on the part of their leaders

Choosing E-Interviews for the Study

I have chosen online interviews to investigate face-to-face phenomena. I chose to conduct interviews in an online environment primarily because of the sensitive nature of the topic under study. It seems logical to assume one organization would be reluctant to allow a dissertation researcher to study their employees with regards to ethical leadership. Therefore, I am planning to invite volunteers from a national, professional, engineering organization to participate in the study. Since presumably volunteer participants would live in areas of the US that might be prohibitive for me to visit from a travel cost and/or time perspective, I decided conducting interviews using an online meeting media that mimicked a face-to-face experience would provide the next best option.

Handling Sampling and Recruiting

Volunteers from the national, professional, engineering organization will be invited to participate in my study via an introductory email. The email will briefly explain the purpose of the research and invite the potential participants to complete a questionnaire if they are interested in pursuing participation in the study. The questionnaire will include standard demographic questions, one or two questions on the potential participants’ experiences with online meeting media, and one or two questions on potential participants’ experiences with ethical leadership and their reactions/responses to same.

I plan to choose up to 10 initial participants after analyzing responses to the questionnaire. The goal is to evaluate the overall demographic make-up of respondents and choose a representative sample of them to approach. Once initial interviews have been completed, emerging themes will be identified, and additional participants will be approached using theoretical sampling.

Positioning the Researcher

I am approaching the dissertation study as an outsider looking in, which would position me as a traveler on a journey with consenting participants to discover insights.

Determining E-Interview Style

As this study is my dissertation the e-interview style will be semi-structured but closer to the unstructured end of the spectrum, since it is a constructivist grounded theory study. The chosen internet medium, that of a face-to-face online meeting, should work with this style, provided the consenting participants each set aside sufficient time for the discussion.

Selecting ICT & Milieu

The interviews will be audio and visual based. Interaction will be real-time. The interview setting will be private.

Conducting the Interview

I will have an interview guide for each interview. I plan to conduct a field test shortly of my intended interview process, which should help me refine both the interview guide as well as my plan for handling the 4 stages of the interview process. A contingency plan will be created in case of technical difficulties.

Addressing Ethical Issues

Appropriate steps will be taken in order to protect the human participants in the study. Proper informed consent will be obtained from participants. Consenting participants will be informed of any possible risk to themselves with respect to participating in the study and of their rights with respect to participating in the study, including the right to leave the study at any time without penalty.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:37:40 GMT

by Suzanne Malek.

Hello everyone!

I am a doctoral student at Capella, in the dissertation phase, under the mentorship of Dr. Janet Salmons. My topic of interest is in the area of virtual teaming. I am an assistant professor online and a professional project manager.

I have a copy of Dr. Salmons' book and have found it to be extremely helpful in providing some information on online interviewing techniques.

Suzanne

Part 3: Interviews and Observations: Conducting Research in Virtual Worlds.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:46:48 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

This discussion thread offers a place to discusst Chapters 4 - 7 and your examples of research interviews in virtual worlds. Two of these chapters are about such interviews-- let's start by discussing ideas and recommendations for virtual world interviews contained in Chapters 4 and 5.. In Chapter 4, Dr. Cabiria identified some best practices, as well as some unresolved questions about the protection of digital identity of participants.In Chapter 5, Ann Randall looked at potential interviewer effects. (You met Ann this week in the webinar.)

Please post your thoughts and questions about these two chapters, as well as your own plans or designs for research interviews in virtual worlds or games? How are you preparing to interview-- or how have you interviewed-- avatars as an avatar?

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:35:06 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Visit the top level of the discussion forum to see more discussion threads and resources. Please feel free to share your own examples, including books or articles that may be of interest to others. And do post your questions-- Cases contributors and I are happy to share our thoughts, insights and suggestions.

Re: E-Interview Examples and Resources

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:45:43 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Here are two studies that might interest you:

Barratt, M. J. (2012). The efficacy of interviewing young drug users through online chat. Drug and Alcohol Review, no-no. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00399.x

Abstract:

Introduction and Aims.Despite the fact that most young people who use ‘party drugs’ also use the Internet, accounts of drugs research involving qualitative interviewing using real-time instant messaging or online chat are yet to be published. This paper assesses the efficacy of conducting qualitative research interviews with young party drug users through instant messaging.

Design and Methods.In 2007–2008, 837 Australian residents who reported recent use of psychostimulants and/or hallucinogens and participated in online drug discussion completed a web survey and a subsample of 27 completed online interviews (median age 21, range 17–37, 59% male).

Results.Experienced drug users were more likely to volunteer to be interviewed than novices. The time and space flexibility provided by the online interviews was convenient; however, interviews were more prone to interruption. Establishing legitimacy, personal disclosure, appropriate linguistic style and humour facilitated the development of rapport and enabled the production of more detailed and in-depth data. These strategies were not successful in all cases and when unsuccessful, interviewees were more easily able to exit the interview by choosing not to respond.

Discussion and Conclusions.Young drug users already using the Internet to chat about drugs find online interviewing an acceptable and convenient way to contribute to research. With adequate preparation to develop technical and cultural competencies, online interviewing offers an effective way of engaging with young people that is worthy of consideration by researchers in the alcohol and other drug field.[Barratt MJ. The efficacy of interviewing young drug users through online chat. Drug Alcohol Rev 2011]

See Wiley Online Library http://bit.ly/whUqZT

Zalinger, J. (2012). The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews. In C. Silva (Ed.), Online Research Methods in Urban and Planning Studies: Design and Outcomes (pp. 86-98). doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-0074-4.ch006

Here is a link to the book chapter:
http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/story-ethnochat-designing-instant-messaging/62396

Abstract:

Instant Messaging (IM) programs are powerful and unique tools for conducting semi-structured or unstructured online interviews. However, many unanswered questions exist surrounding the use of IM interviewing. This design chapter takes a storytelling approach to answer two specific research questions: (1) Do rich data collected via IM stand the test of time? (2) How can an IM program be built designed specifically for researchers? The chapter is organized into three parts. Part one reviews recent, related research. Part two takes a somewhat unusual approach to answer the research question regarding the long-term power of IM data by re-visiting the author’s experience from 2007 using IM to interview female participants about their feelings using online dating sites. Part three is a detailed description of a prototype IM program, Ethnochat. There are many IM clients in existence, but nothing has been made specifically for professional researchers for semi-structured or unstructured interviews. Having the best tool available will help urban planners conduct their research more efficiently and at a significantly reduced cost.

Jason Zalinger's Academia.edu site:http://independent.academia.edu/JasonZalinger/About

Re: E-Interview Examples and Resources

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:19:06 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

My friend Ismael Pena-Lopez has posted some resources you may find of interest o his blog, including presentations he made at conferences. See e-Research: social media for social sciences (revisited)

Re: Part 2. Interviews and Postings: Conducting Research with Social Media

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:45:24 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

Janet asks about data collecton using social media. We had a SCoPE seminar in 2008 on Social Media - Benefits for Researchers faciliated by Igne De Waard. Archives are always handy to see how responses to questions have changed over the years!

Part 2. Interviews and Postings: Conducting Research with Social Media

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:38:45 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Q & A and discussion about Chapters 2 and 3.

The first section of Cases in Online Interview Research contains 2 cases and critiques of studies conducted using data collected with interviews in social media sites. In the first, "Blog Like an Egyptian," Sally Bishai used interviews as well as questionairres and blog post analysis for her study. In the second chapter, "Stranger in a Strange Land," Allison Deegan used interviews conducted with Facebook chat and email.(You met Allison Deegan in the webinar.)

What questions, comments or thoughts do you have about these very different cases-- or the commentary on them included in the book?
After reading these cases and commentaries, what thoughts do you have about data collection using social media?

Re: Part 1. E-Interview Research Framework

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:20:56 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

One question in the E-Interview Framework (Salmons, 2012) is about researcher’s motivations for collecting data through online interviews and the rationale for this choice in the context of the overall study. Two key factors are: 1) will the study use data collected through online interviews to investigate real-world, face-to-face phenomena? or 2) will the study use data collected through online interviews to investigate online phenomena? The researcher’s motivation to use data collected in online interviews has implications for ICT selection, timing, when a new tool must be introduced before the actual interview, as well as for items to include in the informed consent agreement. See the attached overview and worksheet and think your design choices.

Please share your ideas so we can compare, contrast and discuss!

Recording for Feb 21 Web Conference

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:49:09 GMT

by Sylvia Currie.

Thanks, Janet, for the great overview today! And thanks to Allison, Ann, and Wendy for sharing your experiences, and to everyone who contributed so many excellent questions and issues to ponder.

Here is the recording:

https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-02-21.0943.M.AC456DEF2B5841109A2E4E2783A336.vcr&sid=727

Re: Feb 21 Web Conference: Introduction to E-Interview Research

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:11:51 GMT

by Moira Hunter.

Thank you for a great event and start to the week's discussions.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:35:36 GMT

by Moira Hunter.

Hello all,

I’m Moira Hunter in Paris, France and I’m looking forward to the session in a few hours. I’m also doing doctoral research and will be conducting online interviews very shortly, hence my interest in participating here.

In the past, I’ve used a variety of tools including Oovoo , Skype plus CallRecorder (Mac) and PowerGramo (PC), webconferencing and also inworld interviews. Recording inworld has its problems, depending upon what you want to do, and platforms such as vAcademia are interesting for the recording features, although public at the moment.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:52:19 GMT

by Salwa Khan.

Hello Everyone,

My name is Salwa Khan and I am a media consultant/faculty development person at Texas State University. I just completed my PhD degree and my study was done in Second Life, largely using in-world interviews and class observations. I'm interested to see what Janet has prepared on this topic and to hear what others are doing.

-Salwa

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:22:59 GMT

by Barbie Bruce.

Hello Janet,

I live in the Rockies (Valemount, BC) and am a “mature” Masters of Education (Distance Education) student at Athabasca University.

I am in the thesis proposal stage and plan to complete a mixed methods study. The first part is the quantitative survey that will guide the second qualitative online interviews.

I used Skype and MP3 Skype recorder for a research assignment and both worked well. I look forward to learning about any tools, tips, and techniques to advance my research skills.

Barbie Bruce

Re: E-Interview Examples and Resources

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:10:43 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Cases in Online Interview Research Sample Chapters and companion website.

Online Interviews in Real Time Sample Chapters and companion website

Janet Salmons' Qualitative E-Interview Tips, sample syllabus and learning resources.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:13:10 GMT

by Jenny Mackness.

Hello Janet - I am looking forward to the session this evening. (I am based in the UK). I have used Skype for interviews for a paper I worked on in 2008 - and used Pamela for Skype for recording. I have also conducted email interviews for another paper I wrote.

Thanks for sharing your framework.

Jenny

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:38:38 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Hello and welcome to everyone who has posted and all who are reading the forum and trying to find the time to post! I look forward to hearing more about your research. Use the "Part 1: Framework" thread to start sharing your ideas, questions and dilemmas. I also created a thread where you can post links to y our own sites, articles, or other relevant resources.

I hope you'll be able to log on for the initial webinar (whether in real time or to the recording). It will be 2/21/12 at 12 PST-- log in at: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.187122BE1330F682CFBDD4C3A712C3&sid=727. We'll discuss planning and design issues using the E-Interview Research Framework.

Thanks to Wendy, Anne and Nellie for joining in-- I know other contributors will be participating throughout the event. They will share their ideas and experiences with interview research conducted using a variety of tools.

See you online tomorrow!

Janet

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:11:34 GMT

by Irwin DeVries.

Hi Janet - I'm Irwin DeVries, Director of Instructional Design at Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning Division. Like a number of others here I'm a PhD candidate and studying open course development and design. This is of particular interest to me as I will be gathering data from a busy and complex Wiki as well as conducting such processes as interviews and focus groups with participants worldwide. Looking forward to this discussion - Irwin

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:42:30 GMT

by David Porter.

Hi Alannah.

There is another Mac-capable qualitative analysis tool that can be used for processing text data. It's called HyperResearch. Works like the others, nVivo, AtlasTi, TAMs Analyzer. It's a bit pricey, but not as pricey as AtlasTI (PC). And you can try it out for free with a limited number of cases and codes.

I'm also working a bit with Discovertext. It's cool because it can ingest RSS feeds from blog posts and forums, text-based documents, Twitter feeds and even YouTube comments. And, because it's a web-based tool you can use from any platform and browser.

I'll stick some of these links in a list in the discussion space that has been set aside by Janet for resources.

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:44:37 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

I am interested to hear more about how you will use interviews as the basis for digital stories...and the nature of the consent agreement from participants that will enable you to do so.

I've created a thread about research design and the E-Interview Research Framework, so I hope you will tell us more!

Janet

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:54:05 GMT

by Danielle Pitzer Brandon.

Welcome Ila!

Re: Please introduce yourself!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:51:00 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

Welcome David, I hope the seminar will be useful. As we'll be discussing, selection of tools is one part of the process.... I look forward to hearing how the E-Interview Framework helps you to think through the other choices necessary to make your study a success!

Re: Part 1. E-Interview Research Framework

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:30:43 GMT

by Janet Salmons.

The E-interview Research Framework is round, not because you want to go around in circles, but because you do want to see the inter-relationships between various design decisions. Nowhere is this more true than in the alignment of data collection methods-- your online interviews and observations-- with the purpose of the study.

I am attaching a worksheet you can use, if you are willing to share your research design map with the group. It will be interesting to learn about your research-- whether you share a past, present or future example. Then, as we go through the rest of the seminar, you can check back and see if design elements change, or you have new insights, as you refine your ideas about online interviews and how they fit with the research.