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Thanks in advance for reading our blog. We hope that the information about these different methods could be useful for the future development of your research. Share with your classmates or professors the link to spread the word♥

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9. WORKING WITH IMAGES

https://giphy.com/explore/photography-day

An image is addictive, open, and friendly. An image inspires, locates, and relaxes. An image can invite us to want to explore, to want to know more, to be able to go beyond colors, shapes, strokes. An image, a simple image can become a method of research.  Nowadays we are surrounded by images, while we are driving, eating, talking, etc, everything has become in images, knowing how robust a picture can be we can fit them in a more educational context.

A visual method is particularly important, due to the fact that permits us to interpret these images with the same degree of seriousness as we take words in written investigations. The first thing that you should take into account is learning how you can use a specific image in order to create a belief or idea about the research question, or subject question, or subject. 

Analyzing it, try to identify what emotions, feelings, statements, ideas appear in your mind when you see it in order to have a more accurate conception on what  could be your viewer’s reaction.

There are three different kind of visual data:

Collect the visual data: Learning how the digital environment, how collecting images can help build a concept about a research topic. Analyze the image in order to know if what is transmitted in it is related to your research, for example, Social Networks Diagrams can express in a visual way models of social Interaction that could be difficult to interpret in a text.

Create your own visual data: You can involve yourself in the process by executing your own research photos, draws, etc., particularly for ethnographic methods. For example, if you are investigating a particular place, you can register people ideas about the material, this is called elicitation, or utilizing a pleasant, useful and provocative picture along the interview can make your participants talking about the investigation.

Get participants to make them. Photo-elicitation studies, video, photo diaries, or demanding interviewees to paint or sketch in the conversation, are alternatives to involve the participants in visually expressing their understanding or experience. 

A visual methodology will be "based on the assumption that 'images encode data about values, norms and practices that are often inaccessible to other forms of collecting and reporting information" (Karlsson 2012, p.95). It is important to know that the purpose of working with images is to develop a critical approach.

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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8. EXPERIMENTAL INTERVENTION

When we were kids, we always had that inner voice instructing us to try out a variety of things in order to observe, to examine what would be the result, the consequence of those actions, no matter if they were positives or negatives. However, as time goes by, you start noticing that is very important for you to identify if those experiments are worth it if you are going to obtain good results while you are carrying out.

Having an idea in mind about what could be the purpose of this new research, let's get started.  When we are talking about the experimental intervention method, we refer to on one hand, those actions or professional practices that can enable us to collect certain information on what is the outcome of X on Y, and the other hand, we refer to those interventions that can have the power to transform certain aspects of our daily lives, the purpose of these actions is to know how effective are they in a social, educational, political, etc, context.

It is very important to understand this method, because having a definite sample is essential.  The sample should be separated in two groups, the first one is called “the experimental group”, which is the specimen that will be studied and the second one is “the control group” that is utilized as a reference in order to compare the effectiveness of the experiment.

The type of information you will accumulate is “dependent” or “outcome variable” which means that the data is objective quantitative, like test scores, nonetheless, is possible to collect independent variables such as gender, religion, education, marital status, socio-economic status among others.

For example, you have designed an app that contains exercises that help students to learn multiplication tables much faster. The experimental group will use the app for 30 minutes each day for 3 weeks, and the control group will have traditional classes during the same stipulated period of time. In order to know the efficacy of our experiment you applied and exam and studying their scores you can recognize if your app works or not.

And this is how the Experimental Intervention method works, focus on designing a strong experimental study and try to take into account some variables that can have a negative impact in your method.

Here is an investigation that might be helpful for you, if you are thinking about utilizing this method in particular. 

https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1124&context=educ_fac_pubs

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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7. SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

https://dribbble.com/shots/3574014-Social-Network-Flat-Concept

Social networks have been described as all those social interactions and personal relationships. Websites or other applications can provide platforms for their users in order to create interactions between others users by posting comments, or images, or a different type of information.

A social network analysis is the process concerned of investigating graphical description between “actors” that could be people, animals, computers and even organizations. These actors are categorized as a “nodes” or “vertices” and the links (the relationships or interactions) that connect them are referred as “edges”. Memes spread, business networks, collaboration graphs are examples of social network analysis. These networks are often visualized with sociograms, the nodes are represented as points and links as lines.

There is a link below in which you can may find more interesting information about this method.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/491572/socnet_howto.pdf

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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6. ETHNOGRAPHY

https://www.sismarketresearch.com/qualitative-market-research/ethnography-studies/

The research method called ethnography is about trying to understand how other people live by becoming a member of their community. With this, it is easier to understand how people behave and interact with each other. One tool that ethnographers commonly use is the “participant observation” that is about observing and participating in all the processes.  

Ethnography method is about seeking the right description of daily life and the most detailed information possible. This research method is not only a social science method but also a style of writing. Clifford Geertz described this style as a “thick description” of information.

This method is about knowing different places in a deep way and refers to come close with a place and persons too. Everyone can be an ethnographer, even us in our own cities and neighborhoods, populations that can be studied goes from defined groups of people or places, defined communities, institutions, etc. 

Ultimately, digital ethnography also called virtual or online ethnography is being used as a way to defined boundaries spaces. It can be used as an online research method to investigate cultures that we can find online. 

This online research method can make the conception of “boundaries” a difficult one because of its test locations in general. Ethnography that includes virtual help can be more challenging than other methods due to participant observation that has to have the research that is in charge of the investigation. One of the hardest things in this virtual method is that they don’t know if going to work because is unknown if a community can be active all day long. 

The ethnography method has always been relied to the idea of travel, experience and interact with society. That leads to an interesting challenge for online ethnographers because without physical presence is arduous to have a piece of complete information and also claim authority with the participants, but in the same time, an online field gives the opportunity for innovating and creating new practices of ethnography that encourage reflexivity.

Research ethics is a topic that ethnographers have to take into account because they need to consider the informed consents and permissions for doing the studies. For online ethnographers is hard because they don't know who is their population. 

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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5. FOCUS GROUPS

https://ferpection.com/en/solutions/focus-group

Another method that can be utilized in research projects are the focus groups, these are discussions made by a group of participants, in order to obtain different points of view about the analyzed topic. With this method is possible to acquire diverse opinions about a theme, and they can be shared with interactive ways to involve all the participants and researchers.

Focus groups can have different objectives, for instance, opinion; develop new insights; evaluate ideas, products or services; develop understandings of language use and culture; change people’s perspectives; and many more. 

This method is useful for generated collective views of different groups of people and helps to work directly with large groups too, however, this can be a disadvantage because it might be difficult to manage all the communication and difficulties that a considerable group can provoke. 

Several obstacles may arise in focus groups because it is not easy to work with several people who have different opinions on a topic, these groups can be conformed by 6 to 10 people. One of the most common challenges is that not all people in the group have the same importance in this one, some voices and opinions are heard more than others and this results in indifference within groups.

For using this method you have to able to maintain dialogues and discussions that can alter the perspectives of others, the participants that choose to participate in the focus groups are selected because of their ability to affect change in particular contexts. 

ETHICAL ISSUES

Ethical issues are also important to consider. Focus groups have to be limited when they talk about certain discussions, this could be a challenge because this restricts some parts of the research project. The confidential issues are a demanding task to researchers and participants of focus groups because they have to be able to obtain all the information that is needed without breaking any rule of confidentially. 

Finally, the participants of focus groups need to know some background information about the cultural differences and aspects of the topic, this is because maybe not all the participants understand the same information and with this, they can distort the results.      

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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4. INTERVIEWS

https://www.ceolifestyle.io/dream-job-program

Nowadays, in a research project, a need is to know what the participants think about the specific topic that is studied, one way to know this is the interview method, that has become one of the most popular ones. 

Interviews allow the researchers to understand the opinion of the other person thanks to conversations that can be, face to face, online and even phone calls. Interviews are categorized into three different categories, structured; unstructured or semi-structured. 

The structured form is when you previously organize the questions that you will make in the interview. These questions cannot be changed and it could have the form of a questionnaire. No matter how many interviews you conduct, the questions must be the same, and they have to be presented in the same order that has been already established.  

The unstructured interviews are those where the interviewer has a broad idea about the subject. In order to give the opportunity to the interviewee to express the opinion freely, one specific question is made. This type of interview will proceed as a conversation based on that question.

The semi-structured interviews are a mixture of the two aforementioned forms, in these, the interviewer has questions prepared from before, but does not necessarily follow the order. The interviewer is free to ask additional questions and also allows the interviewee to ask questions back. These types of interviews are easier to conduct because they can be carried out as a simple dialogue. The questions that are asked in this method allow the interviewer to know more information, which can be specific or not.

For example, can be about simple opinions or experiences of the interviewee or can also be about more specific data like factual or demographic questions which may be about the age, family or even educational background of the participant being interviewed.

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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3. LEARNING ANALYTICS

Learning analytics is an emerging domain associated with the compilation, analysis, and reporting of data related to the behaviors and contexts of students, with the purpose of improving the learning process, It is a study method specific to the area of education.

Key to the focus of learning analytics is the application of going beyond mere measure in order to productively mediate and influence student behavior, development, and performance.

Two significant issues for learning analytics are: 

 Where data can and should come from?

 What might be done with them?

 Data deriving from closed learning environments have the advantage of being related directly to student activity within the system, however, they might also lack context, and miss the wider practices within which students are involved. The broader the scope of data collection the richer the correlations one might make, but also the more difficult it becomes to capture and format such data. There are also ethical implications for data collection, discussed further below. 

Feedback to Students. One important consideration for Learning Analytics is the effect of displaying performance feedback to students.  A notable example of this is Course Signals from Purdue University.  This is typical of a ‘traffic light’ approach that seeks to provide a visual indicator of student performance within a course or program of study. 

Information to Teacher. The hope is, of course, that if teachers know more about the behavior of their students they will then be better placed to guide and assist them. 

There are a number of ethical issues that are raised when teachers have more ready access to information about students online behavior.  Put crudely, might the teacher’s views about an academically satisfactory student be contaminated by the knowledge that the student displays an untypical pattern of online engagement?  There are parallel questions about the students’ understanding of what their teachers know about them.  

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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2. DISCOURS ANALYSIS

Discourse analysis is the study of social life understood through the analysis of language in its widest sense (including face-to-face talk, non-verbal interaction, images, symbols, and documents)

It offers ways of investigating meaning, whether in conversation or in culture.

Discourse analytic studies include a wide variety of theories, topics, and analytic strategies, for explaining the language in use.

There are many different types of discourse analysis, including conversation analysis, which analyzes the conversation in detail and the critical analysis of discourse, which pays special attention to how relations of power and domination are related. They are promulgated through discourse.

If we are not  familiar with discourse análysis the different forms can look quite similar to the surface, but when you get to know them, you’ll come to understand their similarities and differences in terms of both theory and practice

It’s important to understand how they all overlap what is common to all forms of discourse análysis is that they make the assumption that discourse constructs rather than reflect reality.

According to Dr. Sally Wiggins, senior in lecturer in psychology at the University Strathclyde, ‘we have different ways of describing things and talking about each different way performs different functions so for example, we might describe a friend in many different ways in terms of their physical attributes, their age, gender, job, and how similar they are to you, but you would describe them very different to your family member than if you were to describe them to tour employers if they were looking for a job.

Discourse análysis treats talks to being a social action in itself then when we talk and write about things, we are constructing the world in very different ways to talk and writing is never neutral. Its always doing something in the world and that’s one of the ways in which discourse análysis differs from other forms of qualitative methodologies. It looks at discourse in its own right rather than as root to something else’

So, it is of prime importance to know that discourse analysis can occur in any area of our society.

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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METHODS - 1.SURVEYS

SURVEYS are methods for gathering data from a particular sample, they can be quantitative and qualitative, the first one refers to the information calculated and written down using numbers, and the other one is about the data concerned with descriptions, that is, information that is observed but not computed.

what do you need to conduct a survey?

 first of all, a sample also referred to as the audience, is needed which should consist of a series of survey respondents data with required demographic characteristics, who can relevantly answer your survey questions and provide the best insights.

 The Characteristics  of a survey sample, are:

Determining sample size: Once you have determined your sample, the total number of individuals in that particular sample is the sample size. Choosing a sample size depends on the final objective of your research. It should consist of a series of survey respondents data with expected demographic characteristics, who can relevantly respond to your survey questions and provide the most suitable responses.

Types of sampling: Probability sampling is a sampling method where the respondent is chosen based on the law of probability. The main feature of this system is that each person in a population has an equal chance of being selected.

 Non-probability sampling: Non-probability sampling is a sampling method where the researcher selects a sample of people purely on the basis of their own discretion. There is no predefined selection method.  

Question design?

These are is the most important parts when using surveys as research methods,  because the success of your work depends on these questions, for that reason we provided you with some important aspects:

1. You should not ask questions about which your respondents are unlikely to know the answers or involve a demand for an unreasonable degree of accuracy.

2. If you provide a range of responses for participants, make sure they are clear about whether they are requesting that they select only one response from the set, or that they must indicate all that apply.

3. Avoid value-laden language that could imply what you expect the ‘correct’ answer to be. Just ask one question at a time.

4. Avoid complex constructions, such as double negatives, in your writing.

5. You must design very clear and specific questions because questions that are poorly designed or that are obvious to the respondent, will make it difficult for them to answer and create doubts or bad feelings about the project and you cannot hope to obtain accurate information from poorly designed questions. 

Survey Data Collection

The methods used to collect survey data have appeared with time. Researchers have increasingly shifted away from paper surveys to using smart, online surveys. we  will show you a list of the four most interesting collection Data types for us:

Face-to-face surveys: The survey response rate in this survey data collection method is always higher because of the respondent trusts the researcher since it is in-person. The survey design in this research the method is planned well in advance but there is so scope to digress to collect in-depth data.

Telephone surveys: Telephone surveys are a cheaper method than face-to-face surveys and less-time consuming too. Contacting respondents via the telephonic medium requires less effort and manpower but the survey response rate could be debated as respondents aren’t very trusting to give out information on the call. In this survey data collection method, the researcher also has less scope to digress from the survey flow.

Online surveys: have now become the most widely used survey data collection method. This method is now widely being used because the reach of the surveys has increased to wherever there is internet access, which is everywhere. There is no limit to the types of questions that can be asked in online surveys and the data collection and data analysis are now structured and easy to manage. The survey response rate of online surveys is very high compared to other survey mediums. 

Paper surveys: the least used survey data collection method that is now being used mostly in field research is paper surveys. Since they are logistically tough to manage and tough to analyze, researchers and organizations are moving away from using this method. These surveys can be used where laptops, computers, and tablets cannot go and hence they use the age-old method of data collection; pen and paper.

We hope this method would help you with your research!

Here are some videos that will help you understand this method better.

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ABOUT THE RESEARCH...

These are some questions you have to consider when selecting your own method:

1. Think of three good research questions that could be answered using this approach.

We choose these three questions because we think that they are accurate for the use of quantitative or qualitative, depending on your goal. 

 Does consuming drugs in college affect students performance?

 How does teenage pregnancy influence in their social life?

 Are children who play video games more likely to be violent?

2. What assumptions about the nature of knowledge (epistemology) seem to be associated with this approach? 

Depending on the types of methods used, you should be aware of the strengths or weaknesses that the project may have, which means considering to evaluate each question to avoid creating inconveniences for the participants. 

3. What kinds of ethical issues arise?

Some of the ethical issues that will arise could be: approval from the institution, organization or other entity in which the research is going to be applied because working without permission can lead legal problems to the researchers. 

On the other hand, consent from the participants involved in the research is a requirement, since they have the right to be notified and conscious of all aspects of the study before accomplishing the survey. 

4. What would "validity" imply in a project that used this approach?

A great way to evaluate the effectiveness of a survey is to take into account the validity.  If you have an understandable study, this is going to lead you to have the expected answers, that means scoping general questions to more-focused ones. 

5. What are some practical issues that would need to be considered?

When applying the study, you have to consider about having enough time to achieve your expectations, having the approval of both, the entity and the sample, in order to succeed in your investigation.

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Do you have any clue about how to start your own research?

As you already know being immersed in the world of researches takes a lot of work to do, especially when you do not have a clear idea about how you are going to go toward the whole process when it comes to identifying which of the different types of methods are going to be useful in your investigation.

1. As a teenager students, we are surrounded by a lot of social issues of our interest, the different aspects that adolescents have to face in their daily life, however, try to focus on the one that you consider is the most relevant for you and the society because after all, you are part of it. 

2. We decided to focus our research on teenage pregnancies, due to the incidence that this matter has in the Colombian society. At the beginning was really difficult to scope our topic because of the subject was too general, and that makes the researching process more demanding nonetheless, we concluded to go straight to the point and be more specific to our research question by getting informed about the problematic in a particular area of Cartagena's city. 

3. Because of that, the research question was aimed to be presented to a precise school community, since they are the most vulnerable population to face this type of issue.

4. We assure the most accurate type of methods that are going to be very useful for us are the surveys since they allow us to determinate the prevalence of teenage pregnancies and meet the current situation of the student's active sexual life. 

5. In all the surveys,  no one knows the exact results that will come out of the study. However, you have to prepare another type of methodology different from the one you choose first that will help you to develop successful researches.

6. Since you want to succeed in your investigation, changes are essential for enhancing your final goal, so get ready to face ups and downs throughout the experience.

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WELCOMING♥

What’s up, guys? hope you are doing good. 

We are Maria Camila Tatis, Victoria Quiroz, and Ana Maria Corcho, Foreign Languages students of The University of Cartagena, located in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. 

As you probably know, the role of researches in the educational context is of paramount importance, since they permit us to increase our knowledge in a concrete and accurate manner,  thus opening up a wide variety of opportunities of any nature, such as social, cultural, business field.

Research is a profound study and careful study relating to a particularly problematic employing scientific methods.  According to American sociologist Earl Robert Babbie, “Research is a systematic inquiry to describe, explain, predict and control the observed phenomenon. Research involves inductive and deductive methods.”

An essential aspect to take into account is the statistics associated with, and the conclusion or the results, that’s why is important to select an infallible method in order to perform it. 

In this blog, you will find a guide with a wide variety of methods, specific information, characteristics and examples. Our purpose is to assist you and apprise you about the existence of these scientific methods. 

We hope that this blog could be useful in your future projects.