During the second seminar this week Olle Bälter spoke of pros and cons with using qualitative and quantitative methods as well as with paper and web questionnaires. Olle went on by telling us about his background working at Karolinska Institutet where they often conduct big, mostly qualitative, questionnaires. It was interesting to hear that the price of one respondent was roughly 500 crowns (with the printing, distribution, pilot testing etc. already included). Olle made a point about how medical schools often are very good at carrying out big questionnaires and that other fields have much to learn from it (including computer science and media technology).
After this we moved on by playing two rounds of Boggle, one concerning qualitative and quantitative methods and the other one concerning paper versus web questionnaires. In the first round some interesting points were made. One of them came from our group and concerned qualitative methods and that you often carry them out and use the collected qualitative data when constructing questionnaires (to collect quantitative data). Personally I at first argued that quantitative methods often are used in relatively new fields where a lot of research does not exist yet, and that you use this collected statistical data to conduct qualitative research. I had to forfeit my argument due to the general opinion of the rest of the class, that differed from mine. I did not get a Boggle point. We did however get a point for pointing out that the result of quantitative data are easier to visualize (with graphs and charts).
Concerning the pros and cons with using paper versus web questionnaires our group pointed out that a limitation with using paper questionnaires is that sometimes you cannot see what people wrote due to their terrible handwriting. We also concluded that paper is in fact platform independent, which Olle placed great importance on. After this the argument that web questionnaires are better for the environment came up. This was quickly shot down. I argue that it totally depends on how many questionnaires we are talking about. The energy consumption of peoples personal computers and the server halls that hosts the web page can add up to a lot if the number of participants are high. Paper questionnaires are of course not very environmentally friendly either with the transport by trucks/planes/boats and the two fold sending process. If I were to say something positive about both methods it would be that paper questionnaires can be used by everybody at all times as well as the fact that web questionnaires can offer some feedback to the respondent while he/she are answering the questions, as Olle showed us an example of. You can also include video and sound into a web questionnaire. Olle also made a good point about trying to avoid the use of the word “not” in your questions as to avoid double negations. All and all I really enjoyed this seminar/lecture!
When playing Boggle I also had the same opinon at first concerning that quantitative methods often are used in relatively new fields where a lot of research does not exist yet, and that you use this collected statistical data to conduct qualitative research. Which I afterwards reconsiderd. I think the best thing with this seminar was that this kinds of questions was brought up and discussed. It's a good way to put views in perspective, you gain a lot from discussing opinions in groups/class. The so far best seminar. In contrast to our monday-seminar what is your opinion of that seminar? What did you gain/learn from these discussions of quantitative papers that was useful during wednesdays-seminar?
SvaraRaderaHi Carl! I like the idea that we can add a video or sound in the web-based questionnaire. First, it provides new opportunities for research, I mean that we can test a new advertising without arranging a special dial-test in a rented room, but just send a fragment of it to the participants of research. But it is also important that these effects make the process of filling in the questionnaire more interactive, and it starts to bring people pleasure. It's like a viral video - people are not only watching a commercial, but also get some interesting experience that they like.
SvaraRadera