scholarly journals How do we know what is happening online?

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 274-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Charalampidi ◽  
Michael Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Gifted Students ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Online Participation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Mixed Approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of analysing online discussion and argue for the merits of mixed methods. Much research of online participation and e-learning has been either message-focused or person-focused. The former covers methodologies such as content and discourse analysis, the latter interviewing and surveys. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches in the context of a study of an online social educational network for gifted students. Design/methodology/approach The design of this study included the use of content analysis, visualisation diagrams, interviews and questionnaire survey to understand the nature of online discussion and the experience of taking part. Findings It was found that the message-focused analysis provided insight into participation and interaction patterns, whereas the surveys and interviews enabled access to members’ preferences and attitudes. Originality/value The contribution of the paper is to argue for a mixed approach in which different types of data can be compared and contrasted. While the use of mixed methods in social research in general has long been suggested, its adoption in the field of online learning is yet to be widely established, possibly because of its time-consuming and demanding nature. Despite these constraints, a mixed-methods approach is advocated, as it allows for a comprehensive picture of the use of the network and the experience of online participation.

scholarly journals O znaczeniu badań ilościowo-jakościowych w edukacji. Próba łączenia wody z ogniem…

2017 ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Sławomir Trusz
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
Research Orientations ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
The One

Trusz Sławomir, O znaczeniu badań ilościowo-jakościowych w edukacji1. Próba łączenia wody z ogniem… [The Meaning of Mixed Quantitative and Qualitative Research in Education. An Attempt to Combine Fire and Water]. Studia Edukacyjne nr 44, 2017, Poznań 2017, pp. 93-104. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 1233-6688. DOI: 10.14746/se.2017.44.6 Social research, including educational studies, could be conducted in accordance with ontological and epistemological assumptions of quantitative vs. qualitative research orientations. When such a distinction is present, the same phenomena are analyzed and presented in a significantly different and often mutually excluding way. Is such an approach justified? It seems it is not. Based on the precedence of a research subject over the method, it could be said that a more comprehensive picture of the phenomena analyzed emerges when researchers make use of methods accepted in both quantitative and qualitative research orientations. The article presents theoretical assumptions and interesting practical solutions of a mixed approach (a mixed methodology) in social research. On the one hand, solutions and methods recommended for the quantitative research can be useful for studies conducted in accordance with the assumptions of qualitative orientation, and on the other hand, solutions and methods recommended for the qualitative research may be useful for the studies conducted in accordance with the assumptions of quantitative orientation. Both approaches have been illustrated by particular examples of research practices.

Mixed or merged? Integration as the real challenge for mixed methods

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat Bazeley
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Real ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Single Instrument ◽  
Real Challenge ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Giampietro Gobo called for new methods that combine qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single instrument, suggesting this was the next challenge facing social research and mixed methods in particular. The purpose of this paper is to respond to that challenge. Design/methodology/approach An overview of methods, demonstrating their inherently mixed qualities, with special emphasis on a range of methods that can be classified as merged. Findings The real challenge is not to find merged methods, but to ensure integration of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the methods used during the analysis and writing processes. Practical implications Researchers need to be alerted to the mixed elements within their work, to learn how to better tap into these and to exploit the integrative potential of their methods during analysis and writing. Researchers need more “rounded” methods training. Originality/value This paper refocuses the challenge facing mixed methods research.

The next challenge: from mixed to merged methods

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giampietro Gobo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Single Instrument ◽  
Single Technique

Purpose – In social sciences, after having witnessed several “turns” (cognitive, linguistic, pragmatic, interactional), the authors observe the rise of the “qualitative turn”. Therefore quantitative research methods are not mainstream anymore. One effect of this rebalance between quality and quantity is the recent “resurgence” of mixed methods. However, a new challenge presses social research: creating new methods, which could combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single instrument, squeezing the advantages of both in a single technique. With the benefit of lowering the costs and making more consistent the findings. Some “merged” methods already exist and QROM could be a visionary laboratory. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – An overview of recent research on the spread and use of social research methods in different countries. Findings – In social sciences quantitative methods are not mainstream anymore. Research limitations/implications – The time has come for a further step in the direction of a full integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. Practical implications – Envisioning the future needs for creating new methods, which could combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a single instrument, squeezing the advantages of both in a single technique. With the benefit of lowering the costs and making more consistent the research findings. Some “merged” methods already exist and QROM could be a visionary laboratory. Social implications – The rise of “qualitative turn” in social sciences will change the power relations in academy and in the market research. New generations of researchers will bring social research back to the times of Chicago School, where qualitative research was dominated. Only posterity will know if this will be good or not. Originality/value – This brief paper envisions the need to go beyond the current “mixed” methods fashion in favour of full “merged” methods research.

Why “merged” methods realize a higher integration than “mixed” methods: a reply

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giampietro Gobo
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose After the initial life (which coincides with the origins of social research in the 1850s, and lasts until 1940s), mixed methods revive at the beginning of 1970s. However, this second life (or renaissance) receives the deleterious imprinting of quantitative methods. In fact, some of the old positivist assumptions are still reproduced and active in most of mixed methods research. This imprinting is traceable in the ambiguity (and purposive semantic stretching) of the term “qualitative”: from the 1990s, it encompasses almost everything (even approaches considered positivistic in the 1950s!). Whereby the semantical extension of the term “qualitative” has become a sort of Trojan horse for a new legitimation of many quantitative and positivist researchers: a great swindle. Today “qualitative” is nonsense and acts as a bug, which muddies the qualitative-quantitative debate. For this reason, it would be better to remove the bug (i.e. to discharge the term “qualitative” from the language of social research and methodology), reset and start over from the level of specific research methods, considering carefully and balancing their diversity before mixing them. The purpose of this paper is to outline two (complementary) ways of integration of methods (“mixed” and “merged”), arguing that “merged” methods realize a higher integration than “mixed” methods, because the former overcome some weaknesses of the latter. Design/methodology/approach A semantic and pragmatic analysis of the term “qualitative.” Findings In social and behavioral sciences, the second life of mixed methods has been heavily affected by old positivist and quantitative assumptions. Research limitations/implications The term “qualitative” should be discharged from the language of social research and methodology. Practical implications The coveted integration in “mixed” methods, could be better pursed through “merged” methods. Social implications Disentangling the strands of a debate (the qualitative-quantitative one) become muddy. Originality/value An alternative framework, to interpret the mixed methods history and their recent developments, has been proposed.

Ascertaining the Role of Leadership on Employee Satisfaction in Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province of South Africa Using Qualitative Research

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingstone Mutsonziwa ◽  
Philip Serumaga-Zake
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Employee Satisfaction ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
Career Growth ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Mixed Approach

This paper is based on the study a Doctor of Business Leadership (DBL) thesis titled A Statistical Model for Employee Satisfaction in the Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province. The purpose of this study was to identify the attributes that affect employee satisfaction in the Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province, South Africa. In order to address the overall objective of this study, the researcher used a two-tiered (mixed) approach in which both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used to complement and enrich the results. This paper is only based on the qualitative component of the study on leadership aspects based on six leaders (two from Social research and four from Market research) that were interviewed. The leaders were selected based on their knowledge of the industry and the expertise they have. Participation in the survey was voluntary. This paper illustrates the power of the qualitative techniques to uncover or unmask the leadership aspects in the Market and Social Research Industries and also gives the human touch to the quantitative results. It was found that leadership and management within the Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province must ensure that they are accommodative in terms of mentoring their subordinates. The industry is driven by quality driven processes and strong leadership. More importantly, issues of a good working environment, remuneration, career growth, and recognition must always be addressed in order to increase employee satisfaction, reduce staff turnover, and attempt to optimize labour productivity. The qualitative findings also help a deeper understanding of leadership within the industry.

scholarly journals Electronic patient record and its effects on social aspects of interprofessional collaboration and clinical workflows in hospitals (eCoCo): a mixed methods study protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Beckmann ◽  
Kerstin Dittmer ◽  
Julia Jaschke ◽  
Ute Karbach ◽  
Juliane Köberlein-Neu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Interprofessional Collaboration ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Patient Records ◽  
Electronic Patient Records ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Network Analyses

Abstract Background The need for and usage of electronic patient records within hospitals has steadily increased over the last decade for economic reasons as well as the proceeding digitalization. While there are numerous benefits from this system, the potential risks of using electronic patient records for hospitals, patients and healthcare professionals must also be discussed. There is a lack in research, particularly regarding effects on healthcare professionals and their daily work in health services. The study eCoCo aims to gain insight into changes in interprofessional collaboration and clinical workflows resulting from introducing electronic patient records. Methods eCoCo is a multi-center case study integrating mixed methods from qualitative and quantitative social research. The case studies include three hospitals that undergo the process of introducing electronic patient records. Data are collected before and after the introduction of electronic patient records using participant observation, interviews, focus groups, time measurement, patient and employee questionnaires and a questionnaire to measure the level of digitalization. Furthermore, documents (patient records) as well as structural and administrative data are gathered. To analyze the interprofessional collaboration qualitative network analyses, reconstructive-hermeneutic analyses and document analyses are conducted. The workflow analyses, patient and employee assessment analyses and classification within the clinical adoption meta-model are conducted to provide insights into clinical workflows. Discussion This study will be the first to investigate the effects of introducing electronic patient records on interprofessional collaboration and clinical workflows from the perspective of healthcare professionals. Thereby, it will consider patients’ safety, legal and ethical concerns and quality of care. The results will help to understand the organization and thereby improve the performance of health services working with electronic patient records. Trial registration The study was registered at the German clinical trials register (DRKS00023343, Pre-Results) on November 17, 2020.

scholarly journals Three faces of the online leftists: An exploratory study based on case observations and big-data analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-101
Author(s):  
Yong Gui ◽  
Ronggui Huang ◽  
Yi Ding
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Method Approach

Left-leaning social thoughts are not a unitary and coherent theoretical system, and leftists can be divided into divergent groups. Based on inductive qualitative observations, this article proposes a theoretical typology of two dimensions of theoretical resources and position orientations to describe left-wing social thoughts communicated in online space. Empirically, we used a mixed approach, an integration of case observations and big-data analyses of Weibo tweets, to investigate three types of left-leaning social thoughts. The identified left-leaning social thoughts include state-centered leftism, populist leftism, and liberal leftism, which are consistent with the proposed theoretical typology. State-centered leftism features strong support of the state and the current regime and a negative attitude toward the West, populist leftism is characterized by unequivocal affirmation of the revolutionary legacy and support for disadvantaged grassroots, and liberal leftism harbors a grassroots position and a decided affirmation of individual rights. In addition, we used supervised machine learning and social network analysis techniques to identify online communities that harbor the afore-mentioned left-leaning social thoughts and analyzed the interaction patterns within and across communities as well as the evolutions of community structures. We found that during the study period of 2012–2014, the liberal leftists gradually declined and the corresponding communities dissolved; the interactions between populist leftists and state-centered leftists intensified, and the ideational cleavage between these two camps increased the online confrontations. This article demonstrates that the mixed method approach of integrating traditional methods with big-data analytics has enormous potential in the sub-discipline of digital sociology.

scholarly journals Coronavax: preparing community and government for COVID-19 vaccination: a research protocol for a mixed methods social research project

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e049356
Author(s):  
Katie Attwell ◽  
Samantha Carlson ◽  
Jordan Tchilingirian ◽  
Tauel Harper ◽  
Lara McKenzie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Vaccination Programme ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Evidence Mapping ◽  
Media Study ◽  
Human Research Ethics ◽  
Childhood Vaccines

IntroductionAhead of the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccination programme, the interdisciplinary Coronavax research team developed a multicomponent mixed methods project to support successful roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in Western Australia. This project seeks to analyse community attitudes about COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine access and information needs. We also study how government incorporates research findings into the vaccination programme.Methods and analysisThe Coronavax protocol employs an analytical social media study, and a qualitative study using in-depth interviews with purposively selected community groups. Participant groups currently include healthcare workers, aged care workers, first responders, adults aged 65+ years, adults aged 30–64 years, young adults aged 18–29 years, education workers, parents/guardians of infants and young children (<5 years), parents/guardians of children aged 5–18 years with comorbidities and parents/guardians who are hesitant about routine childhood vaccines. The project also includes two studies that track how Australian state and Commonwealth (federal) governments use the study findings. These are functional dialogues (translation and discussion exercises that are recorded and analysed) and evidence mapping of networks within government (which track how study findings are used).Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been granted by the Child and Adolescent Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) and the University of Western Australia HREC. Study findings will be disseminated by a series of journal articles, reports to funders and stakeholders, and invited and peer-reviewed presentations.

scholarly journals “A child with autism only has one childhood”: main themes and questions for research from the “Digital Bubbles” seminar series

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Parsons ◽  
Nicola Yuill ◽  
Mark Brosnan ◽  
Judith Good
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Responsible Innovation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Autistic People ◽  
Seminar Series ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Main Ideas

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the main messages and key questions for further research arising from the seven-seminar series entitled, “Innovative technologies for autism: critical reflections on digital bubbles”, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK. Design/methodology/approach A synthesis of the main ideas is presented, drawing on the presentations, discussions, participant feedback, and short papers from across the seminar series, which took place between November 2014-2016. Findings There were many positive examples where technologies were positioned and used as facilitative “bridges” between ideas, communities, understanding, and experiences. Researchers and community stakeholders also emphasised the importance of taking different perspectives and working in stronger partnerships with each other. Four overarching research questions were developed from these themes to provide a roadmap for future research, relating to: responsible innovation, technology-enabled social interaction, learning and pedagogy, and engagement. Originality/value The findings and methodologies produced by the Digital Bubbles seminar series, available on the project website (http://digitalbubbles.org.uk/) and in a series of short papers, provide a rich repository of state-of-the-art thinking in the field of autism and technology that is being utilised nationally and internationally in teaching and learning. This paper suggests some valuable future research directions and highlights the importance of establishing and maintaining multi-disciplinary research teams, with autistic people and their families at their core.

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