Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Revised topic for now

If you want to know just ask! I'll be happy to share!

What I've learned so far

Yeah, yeah. Haven't posted here in awhile. Sorry about that. Anyway, better write down my thoughts before I forget them.

So, I have conducted a few surveys, focus groups, and interviews within the past few months and here's what I have learned.

Surveys
* Let students/participants choose their own ethnicity. In other words, provide a short answer option rather than multiple-choice. I have overheard lots of participants disagree with being pidgeon-holed into one ethnicity or another. I hate this as well since I am bi-racial.

Interviews
* I've had a problem with "leading" my interview participants into what I want them to say rather than answering the question for themselves. I need to make my questions more open-ended. I also need to pause and give my interviewees awhile to answer the question, instead of me interupting them.

Focus Groups
* Do NOT ... and I repeat, DO NOT let the students' instructor be in the room at the same time you are interviewing the students. I wanted to ask the instructor to leave, but she had to clean up the room before those in charge of the building locked it. And then she told me about overhearing what the students told me in the interview. I think this prevented my participants to elaborate more on what they were trying to tell me. Next time, I plan to use the Elluminate conferencing software my office uses to interview my participants online where I can record our conversation and only I would hear them.

Overall, I learned a lot. I will probably add to this post and blog as time goes on. Thanks for reading.