Designing the Research Tool(s)

1. Designing the Research Tool(s)

2. Research Design Types of Primary Research Questionnaire Construction Designing the Research Tool(s)

3. Primary vs. Secondary Research Reliability and Validity Quantitative vs. Qualitative Data Research Design

4. Research Design • Primary Research • Focus groups • Interview • Observation • Questionnaire survey • Secondary Research • Unpublished • Academic theses, reports • Published • Books, magazines, journals, newspapers, internet websites

5. Research Design • Reliability • Replicates research with same results • Ensure a significant sample size • Validity • Test what you set out to test • Think through, design and construct carefully

6. Research Design • Quantitative Data • Completely objective • Easy to tabulate • Discrete • continuous • Qualitative Data • Qualities or attributes • Difficult to measure quantitatively

7. Focus groups Observation Interview Questionnaire survey Types of Primary Research

8. Can be an important tool for programme evaluation Marketing, advertising Policy-making communication Consists of a number of individuals Lasts between 1 to 2½ hours Records or observes the session Focus Group Discussions

9. Focus Group Discussions • Advantages • Used for exploratory research • Obtain data quickly and less costly • Interact, probe and clarify • Observe non-verbal behaviour • Disadvantages • Cannot extrapolate to a larger population • Affect the thought processes of respondents and researcher • Collating the information and its interpretation may be difficult

10. Observation • Involves watching or seeing what is happening • Obtain data through the use of the five senses • Example : • Counting the number of • buses that run on time

11. No. of buses that run on time at specific time intervals Observer _________________________ Date ________ Place _____________________________ Day _________ Time 8 - 8.59 9 - 9.59 10 - 10.59 11 - 11.59 12 - 12.59 13 - 13.59 14 - 14.59 15 - 15.59 Observational Tally Sheet

12. Observation • Advantages • May be the only method at times • Generally objective • Easy to tally and work with • Disadvantages • Limited to those phenomenon observed • Cannot explain why • May be influenced by observer bias • May be expensive and time-consuming

13. Interviews • Used when in-depth understanding is needed • Can be used with other research tools to • Supplement information • Clarify the problem, limit the scope etc. • Help interpret unusual findings • Put data into perspective

14. Interviews • Structured Interview • Cannot vary the way the questions are asked • Can only repeat the question • Speak in as neutral a tone as possible • Purpose: Limit the interviewer bias • Unstructured interview • Conversational in tone • Informal way of eliciting information • Example:Job interview • information to be elicited – qualifications, experience, ability to work with others etc.

15. Interviews • Advantages • Relatively more flexible and adaptable • Permits probing • Can observe the non-verbal behaviour • Ambiguity can be clarified • Disadvantages • Interviewer bias can affect the interviewee’s responses • Time-consuming and expensive • Difficult to tabulate

16. Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Questionnaire Survey • An orderly list of questions to • obtain facts, opinions, attitudes etc. • provide answers to how and why people think or behave in a certain way • Helps researchers • make decisions • improve products • recommend policies/procedures • suggest changes

17. Questionnaire Survey • Advantages • Eliminates researcher’s prejudices • Time and cost effective • Reaches a large number of respondents • Respondents’ privacy maintained • Easy to tabulate • Disadvantages • Returns may not be representative • Answers may not be as desired • May be invalid and unreliable • Time-consuming to design and refine

18. Types of Questions • Open-ended question • In your opinion, how can Resident Committees meet the needs of people living in the neighbourhood? • Dichotomous question • Only people with degrees should be promoted. • Agree ___ Disagree ___ No opinion ___ • Multiple-choice question • Tick the radio station you listen to most frequently : • Class 95 FM ____ FM92.4 ____ • 93.8 FM ____ Gold 90FM ____

19. Types of Questions • Rating question • How do you rate the efficiency of this department? • Excellent Good Average Fair Poor • 2 3 4 5 • Ranking question • Rank the following subjects in order of preference. • (1 being the most preferable) : • Applied Statistics __________ • Business Finance __________ • International Economics __________ • Managerial Accounting __________ • Management Sciences __________

20. Questionnaire Construction • Be as clear as possible • Designed to elicit as accurately and quickly as possible from the respondent • obtain facts, opinions, attitudes etc. • provide answers to how and why people think or behave in a certain way • Helps researchers • make decisions • improve products • recommend policies/procedures • suggest changes

21. Example Purpose: To evaluate the effect of training programme on staff morale Hypothesis: Workers are dissatisfied with the selection procedures.

22. Hypothesis: Workers are dissatisfied with the selection procedures. 1. How would you rate the present selection procedures used to identify staff for the new training programme? good 1 2 3 4 poor

23. Hypothesis: Workers are dissatisfied with the selection procedures. 2. If you gave a rating of either 3 or 4, please indicate your reasons (you may tick more than one option): it is embarrassing to be nominated it doesn't identify the people who really need the training people who might want to attend the course are not able to others; please elaborate ______________________

24. Structure of the Questionnaire • Be personal and friendly • – Show appreciation • – Introduce yourself and subject • Be logical • – Provide clear instructions • – Place simple questions first • – Categorise questions • – Make transitions smooth • – Use filter/classification questions

25. Content of Questions • Make questions easy to answer • Avoid sensitive or personal questions • Avoid asking for difficult information • Provide realistic options • offer choices that are mutually exclusive • avoid multi-topic questions • include “don’t know”, “others”, no opinion” categories

26. Phrasing of Questions • Phrase questions unambiguously • Use question words • Eg. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? • Avoid words with vague meanings • Eg. Do you drink regularly?

27. Phrasing of Questions • Use objective phrasing • Phrase questions concisely • Eg. Has it happened to you that over a long • period of time, when you neither practiced • abstinence nor birth control, you did not • conceive?

28. Phrasing of Questions • Use objective phrasing • Avoid leading questions • Eg. Is Phua Chu Kang your favourite sitcom? • Avoid loaded questions • Eg. Do you practise good dental hygiene?

29. Basic Principles • Be brief • Keep the questionnaire short • Make each question count • Be professional • Make questionnaire visually appealing • Use good quality paper • Use correct grammar • Plan for easy tabulation • Avoid open-ended questions • Provide range categories