Web Research & Focus Groups

Research is done in many forms such as, Manual posting, focus groups, web research. I believe that all of these have an effect on the outcome and credibility of research. Where Web Research is easy to send out to participants but can be very intrusive and often ignored. People using the web tend to have little patience therefore may tend to answer quicker and think less about the question in hand.
Where Focus groups would be more credible as there is an essence of personal interaction involved. But this also depends on the researcher and how involved he/she is in the focus group. This allows the focus group to communicate their opinions beliefs rather than just a collation of multiple choice questions which don't really explain fully how they feel about the issue in question. Although the credibility of Focus Groups depends on the how the observer analyses the discussions and how the focus group is arranged in the correct way to tackle the hypotheses in question.

References:
Focus Group, Retrieved 17 November 2010 From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_group


Morgan D, L. (1997) Focus Groups as qualitative research 2nd Edition. Retrieved 17 November 2010 From:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iBJZusd1GocC&oi=fnd&pg=PP7&dq=focus+groups&ots=mwSfaMeBX2&sig=r5PU3loC0G-opR5aUKr_6BUPMTc#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Research Credibility

Keywords: Validity, Quality of research, Research quality, Qualitative research, Quantitative research

Research credibility entails the quality and validity of a research work; how it is being carried out, the point of view of the researcher, the environment, and the methods and approaches adopted. This also hinges on the reliable judgement of the researcher, how the data have been gathered, analysed and results presented (Patton, 1999). Credibility in this sense raises some questions:
• What methods are used to collect data; survey, questionnaire, interview, or focus groups?
• Does the research questions relevant to the topic being researched?
• Were the hypotheses used testable?
• What research approach was used, fixed or flexible?
• Are the results of the qualitative and quantitative research checked and validated?
These questions serve as criteria for the credibility of a research.

Also, the philosophy and the environment of the researcher play a great part when checking the validity and quality of a research.

References
Patton, M. (1999, December). Enhancing the Quality and Credibility of Qualitative Analysis. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4149/is_5_34/ai_58451871/

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Is it possible for a report to contain Quantitative data to produce a strong argument for or against a particular situation or should some qualitative information be used to support the statistics?

I believe you need a balance of both types of data to accurately put your case.  I don't feel that it is enough to state 80% of people surveyed agreed, without commenting on the environment and any other opinions given at the time of the survey or questionnaire.  It is far better to give a wider picture of the situation, so that the reader of a report can understand the context in which the report was written.

Information like this can lend more credibility to a report in my opinion.

Experiments

Also based on our lecture last week we discussed experimental and non-experimental research.
We also discussed research that brings qualitative and quantative research and the difference between the both, how reliable the data returned is, etc. Qualitative Research is based on not pre-defining the experiment variables in order to change the survey as the researcher sees fit. Qualitative research is reliable but cannot be replicated due to the uniqueness of the flexible design and situation.
Quantitative Research has pre-defined variables in a fixed environment. Types of fixed designs included experimental and non-experimental research. It was stated in our lecture last week that some companies/organisations might edit their research questions or experiment in such a way to get the answers they want from the participants. Therefore this type of research would not be credible, but companies use it in a way to advertise themselves.