Compare and Contrast Paper on Research Methodologies: Online Questionnaires and Focus Group Technique

Focus Group Research Methodology

Focus group technique is a qualitative research methodology used in exploring the knowledge, opinions, concerns, as well as the perceptions of individuals on a given topic such as the user experience on EVENSNAPPIERCHAT. In this case, the focus group will be comprised of the individuals who have used the application before. Focus group will be key in investigating the users behaviours end experience, identify the changes to be made in the application, to verify the results from the online questionnaires, to add the human dimension to the collected data, to investigate the effectiveness and usefulness of the EVENSNAPPIERCHAT among the youths, and to make an informed decision on the User Interface and User Experience Design (UI/UX) (Silverman, 2016).

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Strengths

Focus group as a method of research methodology has the following strengths:

1. They give detailed information on personal and group feelings as well as the perceptions and opinions on a given topic.
2. The use of focus groups is cost-effective regarding time and money as compared to other methods such as interviews.
3. The method provides a broader range of information.
4. The method offers the opportunity to seek clarification as there is one on one interaction.
5. The use of focus group provides useful materials that can be used in presentations and public relations.

Weaknesses

1. Despite its advantages, the method has the following weaknesses:
2. The data collected can be tricky to analyze
3. The process is hard to control and manage
4. The groups are self-selecting thus may be biased
5. There can be disagreements in the process of collecting data causing distractions

Online Questionnaires

Online Questionnaire is a survey completed by the target audience over the internet. The surveys are usually created using web forms with a database that stores the data collected in the process to provide analytics (Shapka et al., 2016).

Strengths

Online Questionnaire is essential in the collecting data on the mobile application because of the following reasons

1. It is cost effective
2. It saves time
3. It is convenient
4. It is easily accessible
5. It has a wider reach and scalable
6. It is flexible
7. It provides the respondent anonymity
8. The methodology provides objectivity to the feedback
9. The data collected using this method tend to be more accurate
10. It provides quick results

Weaknesses

1. Despite the strengths of this method, Online Questionnaire has the following weaknesses:
2. Limited sampling and respondent availability due to lack of internet by some youths who have been using the application
3. Lack of cooperation by the target audience due to trust issues by the internet audience.
4. Lack of trained interviewer to clarify and the probe may lead to less reliability of data collected.

Tradeoffs and Complementation

Implementation of these two methods come hand in hand. Online questionnaires will be essential in the collection of the data while focus group will be key in the verification, the addition of the human dimension, and deepen understanding of the collected statistical data. Thus, the use of this two method is essential for the intended process.

Outline for the Best Study Design

The best study design for this process will be a meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a statistical method of analyzing data that combines results from multiple scientific studies such as online questionnaire and focus groups.

Overview of Protocol

Meta-analysis aims at building bridges existing in the margin of errors presented by the individual studies. The protocol then derives a pooled estimate of common truth made from the use of the two research methodologies which in this case are online questionnaires and the focus group (Schmidt & Hunter, 2014). The meta-analysis also can contrast results from various studies and identify the patterns they use, the sources, and the relationship between them.

Tasks

The primary objective of the study is to save the company from scrambling by figuring out a way to maintain the essence of our product. Thus, the tasks in this process will be:

1. To find out the features most used by the users
2. To restore the image of the product by assuring the users of their data privacy
3. To collect data on types and category of data sent by the users
4. To find out the users preferences in the management of their data.

Setting

The data collection will be done online and the focus group selected among the identified users.

Examples of questions to be asked in the questionnaires

1. What would you like to change from the current User Interface of the EVENSNAPPIERCHAT application?
2. What do features use most in EVENSNAPPIERCHAT?
3. What do you often use the application for?
4. What kind of conversations do you prefer to have using EVENSNAPPIERCHAT application?
5. What is your major concern in the chat privacy?

Things to Observe From the Responses

The data privacy concerns among the teens.

The most used features among the teens.

The types of conversations held by teens using the application.

The take of the youths on the impending outlaw of the app by the government.

Analysis of the Study Design

Strengths of the Study Design

Meta-analysis study design selected is advantageous in this process for the following reasons:

• It offers the opportunity to form a critical evaluation of the results of the methodologies used.
• The data collected from the methodologies can be statistically combined and compared to give meaningful results.
• The study design increases the number of observations and the statistical power of the data collected.

Weaknesses of the Study Design

However, meta-analysis has the following shortcomings:

• There might be variability in the data reported from the two methodologies used.
• The question about the proportion of text and photos sent by the teens using the application will be quite difficult to answer as some of them prefer to keep the information secret.
• Since the study implements the use of online questionnaires and focus groups, there are no questions about realism, precision, and generalizability of the findings.

References

Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (2014). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Sage publications.

Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.

Shapka, J. D., Domene, J. F., Khan, S., & Yang, L. M. (2016). Online versus in-person interviews with adolescents: An exploration of data equivalence. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 361-367.