English UK
Research Skills in the Social Sciences: Data Collection
Project title :How many hours of sleep a day before exam week will help you perform better in the exams?
we choose interview(online)
Assignment 2: Data collection essay
After receiving confirmation of the Level 1 ethics approval from the Course Organiser you should include the following statement in your second assignment:
I confirm that I have carried out the School Ethics self-audit in relation to my proposed research [give a descriptive title] and that no reasonably foreseeable ethical risks have been identified.
(Note that this statement is included in the total word count for your essay.)
Your second written submission takes the form of a 4,000 word essay. We expect you to draw on, and make reference to, some of the relevant research literature in your field and in Data Collection when discussing your use of particular methods. We want you to describe and discuss aspects of your data collection such as:
• selection and sampling
• access and recruitment
• recording
• confidentiality and ethics
In this essay you will also provide us with evidence of what data you have collected as well as how you collected it. We are looking for quotes from an interview transcript, field notes or survey results.
You should include with your essay an APPENDIX where you show us the instrument* as well as the consent form and information sheet where appropriate. We make no prescription as to how long or short your appendix should be, and will assess it only in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency in gathering the data you want.
*In most instances, you will develop what we call a research instrument, or something that helps you gather structured data. This may be a series of questions you have asked your focus group to discuss, an interview schedule or a survey questionnaire.
Your essay should be no more than 4,000 words long. Word length includes footnotes and endnotes, tables, diagrams and your ethics statement, but not any title page, bibliographies or your appendix. Given that footnotes and endnotes are included, you may wish to use a short referencing system such as Harvard.
For all the assessments please note:
a) This is a data collection, not a literature review, exercise. Nonetheless, it will be useful to contextualise your project – so an introductory section situating the study context and setting, outlining key literature and setting research questions will be beneficial.
b) This is not an exercise in data analysis, but we require you to consider the data collected. It’s an exercise in collecting (and thinking about how to collect) data in the form of your choosing – interview, focus group, ethnography, documents or visuals or a survey. So, rather than analyse the data or present findings, you should use the data collected to report on whether the data you have collected is ‘analysable’, whether the method was (or could in larger study) be successful in answering your research question, what you would change and how you would roll out your approach more widely.
c) Please note that you cannot use your workshop exercise for the assessment.
Now is the time to choose what assessment exercise to do.
Please choose ONE of the following exercises (1-5) below:
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Exercise 1: documents, artefacts and visual evidence:
Identify or generate and collect a set of documents, photographs or other artefacts you intend to use as sources of data. You may want to collect a set of already existing research objects (documents, photographs or other material things), or experiment in creating new visual data, such as by taking photographs of people, places or events.
Write a report of your data collection work that reflects on:
• its purpose;
• the reasons you chose this method;
• your methods of searching for, identifying and accessing your documents, photographs or artefacts – and/or your methods of creating new visual objects;
• the ways you selected the most useful items among them;
• what kinds of further analysis they make possible (such as content analysis or other forms of qualitative data analysis);
• how documentary and visual data collection might be used in combination with other methods such as interviews, focus groups, surveys or ethnographic observation;
• any ethical issues you may have encountered.
You should make reference, where you can, to other similar work in your field. You should provide examples of your data – extracts from documents, photographs or other materials – as appropriate in your discussion, as well as a further appendix, which simply lists the materials you have collected or created (and any other evidence, such as search results, which shows how you did so).
PLEASE NOTE
(i) this is a data collection not a literature review exercise: you are not being asked to identify an academic research literature comprising books, journal articles and so on, but to identify a set of ‘real-world’ documents and/or other visual artefacts to work with;
(ii) by the same token, it’s a data collection not a data analysis exercise: it’s an exercise in collecting (and thinking about how to collect) a set of documents, not in analysing individual documents and other items. Think in terms of the value or validity and representativeness of the set as a whole, not about what one or more individual items might say.
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Exercise 2: Interviews
Develop a topic guide or schedule and conduct TWO interviews online. Interviews might last approximately 45 minutes. Write a report that reflects on:
• the purpose of your data collection
• the reasons you chose this method
• the logic of selecting and approaching your participants
• the circumstances and setting of the interview
• the instrument you developed and used
• the form, content and order of questioning and the use of prompts
• the recording and transcription of the interview
• your management of ethical issues
• how far your approach succeeded in answering your research question
Did the interviews begin to answer your research question? To what extent? Use examples from your notes and/or transcripts to reflect on items of useful, useless or missing data. You should also provide excerpts from your notes and/or transcripts to illustrate the issues you discuss and points you make. You should provide a copy of your interview schedule, consent form and information sheet (as appropriate) in the APPENDIX.
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Exercise 3: Focus groups
Conduct an online focus group with approximately five people for thirty minutes. Write a report of your focus group that reflects on:
• the purpose of your data collection
• the reasons you chose this method
• the logic of selecting and approaching your respondents
• any issues with sampling or self-selection
• the circumstances and setting of the group
• the instrument you have developed and used
• the form, content and order of questioning and the use of prompts
• the recording and transcription of the discussion
• ethical issues
• how far your approach succeeded in answering your research question
Did the focus group create the kind of data you were looking for? To what extent? Use examples from your notes and/or transcripts to reflect on items of useful, useless or missing data. You should also provide excerpts from your notes and/or transcripts to illustrate issues you discuss. You should provide a copy of your topic guide, consent form and information sheet (as appropriate) in the APPENDIX.
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Exercise 4: Ethnographic methods
Identify a research site and conduct observational or ethnographic research on at least three separate occasions. Write an account of your experience of using observational methods that reflects on:
• the purpose of your data collection
• the reasons you chose this method
• the logic of selecting and approaching your site and/or respondents
• the process of gaining access to this site or respondents
• your recording of data in note or other form
• ethical issues
• how far your approach succeeded in answering your research question
Did your data collection methods create the kind of data you were looking for? To what extent? Illustrate with reference to your field notes. Observational methods do not ordinarily use a research instrument: in a sense, you the researcher act as research instrument. You should reflect on the way you managed your role as participant (or non-participant) observer in the APPENDIX (and add your consent form and information sheet (as appropriate).
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Exercise 5: Questionnaires
Design a structured questionnaire with a maximum of 20 questions and have it completed by at least 5 respondents. You should produce an online questionnaire using software such as Qualtrics. Write a report that reflects on:
• the purpose of your data collection
• the appropriateness of this method
• your sampling
• the design and form of your questionnaire, including the type and ordering of questions
• the method of administration or delivery you chose
• issues in cleaning, coding or computing your data
• ethical issues
• how far your approach succeeded in answering your research question
Did the questionnaire provide the data you were looking for? To what extent? You should draw on examples from your completed questionnaires to reflect on useful, useless and/or missing data. You should provide examples of responses to one or more of your questions from all five of your respondents. You should provide a copy of your questionnaire and any associated instructions you gave to your respondents in the APPENDIX (including your consent form and information sheet (as appropriate)).
Workshop facilitators and the course organisers are available for individual meetings with you to discuss your coursework preparation and any other questions or comments you have about data collection. You should arrange a short meeting with the tutor who leads your workshop to discuss your assignment idea.