Janet Salmons

When we communicate online today, we often use images or media as part of the exchange. The fact that every smartphone has a camera (and video camera) means we can record even casual observations and share them easily with someone, a group or the public. These posted images are one kind of data collected by many who use observational research methods.

But visual exchange is also beneficial for interview researchers.Qualitative Online Interviews contains a full chapter about visual interviews.  I've created a "Typology of Visual Online Methods" (2010, 2012, 2015) and you can read a brief introduction. (See Chapter 1 from Cases in Online Interview Research, which is online here. The description starts on page 23.) I've also recorded an overview you can watch:

On Monday, May 12, 2014 at 17:00 GMT (1:00 PM in EDT) I will offer a webinar about visually-rich online interviews. I will demonstrate techniques using a variety of techniques and technologies. We'll also discuss visual methods for online research in this forum. Please post your thoughts, questions, favorite resources or examples!

Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 14:00 GMT 5 Tips for Teaching E-Interview Methods

I created a video introduction for points we'll discuss in the tweetchat. See: http://bit.ly/1jvAT2s

I've also created a number of course outlines that can be adapted for your classes. They are posted here.

To participate, just log into Twitter and enter #NSMNSS. If you haven't been in a tweetchat before, here are some instructions: http://bit.ly/1kQDHH2 .

We'll also discuss the issues here, so please post your thoughts and questions about integrating online research topics into methods courses. Also, feel free to share any examples of learning activities, assignments or readings you have used in research methods classes (as a student or instructor).

Join the Fair & Good webinar on Monday 5/5 @ 17:00 GMT or 1 EDT

A link to the recording will be posted after the event.

When reflecting on your own design or completed study, when reviewing student work-- or serving as a peer reviewer-- what should you look for in qualitative studies that use data collected online? What ethical questions should be considered? These are some of the topics we'll discuss.

As background to this conversation, you might these two documents of interest. One is a report I put together this spring after an analysis of discussion transcripts from the New Social Media, New Social Science network to identify ethical dilemmas reported by researchers, and a review association ethics codes to see whether and how these emergent issues were addressed. I discussed the report in this recorded presentation. Reviewed materials included guidelines from the Association of Internet Researchers(AOIR), British Educational Research Association (BERA), British Psychological Society (BPS), CASRO, European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) and Market Research Society (MRS), and Association (MRA) and a number of books and articles listed here.

The other is based on a study that looked at social media users' perspectives on the use of their content by researchers. 

As the map illustrating this post shows, online research ethics are complex. But to conduct quality research that adds new knowledge, we need to find ways to navigate this maze and make the best decisions. Given the scope of the topic, we won't be able to cover the full range of issues in one webinar. Please post your questions and dilemmas and I'll do my best to cover them. Even better, come and ask your questions in the webinar!

Hello everyone,

Over the next two weeks we will discuss many aspects of online interview research, from designing the study to conducting the interviews. I want this event to be relevant to your needs and interests, so please post your ideas and questions!

To begin at the beginning, I define online interviews or e-interviews as: "interviews conducted using computer-mediated communication (CMC). Such interviews are used for primary Internet-mediated research. That is, they are used to gather original data via the Internet with the intention of subjecting these data to analysis" (Salmons, 2015). This is a broad definition that encompasses any online interaction with someone-- no matter how seemingly informal-- where the exchange is recorded and saved, and will be analyzed.

To begin the dialogue about how to think through technology and methods options, I would like to share the E-Interview Research Framework. I developed this model to present the elements of the research design as part of a coherent whole. The E-Interview Research Framework offers a conceptual system of key questions about interrelated facets of online interview research.

When introduced in Cases in Online Interview Research (Salmons, 2012), the central focus was on data collection with online interviews; however, the updated E-Interview Research Framework encompasses related primary (i.e., questionnaires, observations) and secondary (i.e., posts, sites, documents,images, or media) online data collection.

Here are some materials that introduce elements of the model:

• Chapter 1 from Cases in Online Interview Research;
• An overview of the model and its use in planning and evaluating studies: 
  .

Choosing E-Interviews
One of the first questions to consider is: why choose to conduct interviews online? My initial motivation was the desire to interview people from different countries-- without having funds to travel. Now, I am also motivated by the desire to use visual methods of exchange. What about you? Let's start the conversation with that question!

This is a an area for sharing articles, books or online resources relevant to online interviews or interview research generally.