What are Online Research Methods?

Tristram Hooley & Jane Wellens

What are online research methods?Research methods that utilise the internet as medium for research

Sometimes referred to as internet mediated research

Includes research methods designed to investigate both online & offline phenomenon

Types of ORMonline questionnairessynchronous and asynchronous interviewsvirtual ethnographiesonline experimentsweb analytics & content analysis+ others

Online Research Methods - ChallengesDraw on a wide range of methodological, theoretical and disciplinary traditions Understanding the range of tools, environments and online cultures is a precursor to successful researchTechnological and social environments change year on yearIncreased blurring of the online and offline environments creates a need for new composite methodologiesPotentially poses new and different ethical considerations

Advantages of online research?Huge uptake of ORM, especially online questionnairesUseful in particular situations e.g. researching online populations and previously difficult to contact groupsCan mitigate distance and space and so internationalise researchCan save time and moneyDecrease personal riskDifferent dynamics of communication:- more neutral venue?- more thoughtful responses?- different participants open up/contribute?

But.disadvantagesBut issues of digital access and digital literacy can limit who we talk toDrop off rates for questionnaires highIssues of identity verificationChallenges to building rapport in interviewsCircumstances of interview beyond interviewers controlTechnical obstaclesStill need degree of technical competence and institutional support (although this is getting easier all the time)

Online Questionnaires - key questionsWhat are your research questions/ aims?Who are you talking to?SamplingRecruitmentNon-responseHow are you talking to them?Question typeSurvey lengthLanguage

Advantages of online questionnairesIncreasingly common approach (familiar to respondents)Speed and volume of data collectionSavings in costs (to researcher)Flexible designData accuracyAccess to research populationsAnonymity

Online questionnaires - challengesSample biasMeasurement error (Sax et al, 2003)Non-response biasLength, response and dropout ratesTechnical problemsEthical issuesRecruitmentIdentity verificationResponse ratesIdentifying appropriate tools & implementation

Design issuesUsabilityAccessibilityDoabilityWill your questionnaire be easy to use?Or will the interface, colours and question types frustrate people and put them off?Will your questionnaire be accessible?Or will it crash on old computers, render weirdly on different operating systems and be impossible to use with a screen reader?Will your questionnaire be doable?Or are your multi-media dreams running ahead of your technical ability and are your data arriving in an unusable format?

Improving response ratesMake contact before mailing the survey e.g. an introductory letter Provide information that builds trust e.g. names and photos of the researchersEngage gatekeepers and encourage them to endorse the surveyThink about how your brand (e.g. the university) will be perceived by the subjects Provide clear instructions on how to complete the questionnaire;Limit the amount of personal information you requestUse simple questionnaire format and avoid complex or open-ended questionsDesign survey so it takes approximately 10 minutes to complete;Do not include more than 15 questionsSend one or two follow up remindersEmphasise confidentiality (if appropriate)

Key resource: Fan, W., & Yan, Z. (2010). Factors affecting response rates of the web survey.Computers in Human Behavior,26(2), 132-139.

Some Software OptionsGoogle Forms http://docs.google.com FREELime Survey http://www.limesurvey.org FREEBOS http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk CHEAPSurveyMonkey http://www.surveymonkey.com Snap http://www.snapsurveys.com Using the functionality of your website or VLEBespoke systems

So.The quantity of information that may be generated, and the speed at which responses can be collected, can result in pleasing piles of data- but we should be wary of being seduced by sheer quantity; data is only useful if it is representative of the larger population.Wakeford (2000, 33)

Online Interviews key questions Why use online interviews?What type of interview (synchronous or asynchronous)?One-to-one or group? Text based or using audio or video?What software/service will you use? How are you going to record, retrieve and analyse data?

Online Interviews: advantagesCarry out interviews with a very geographically dispersed populationInterview individuals or groups who are often difficult to reach, such as the less physically mobile or the socially isolated or those living in dangerous places.Provide savings in costs to the researcherSupply ready transcribed interview data, quickly, providing fast and cheap alternatives to face-to-face interviewsReduce issues of interviewer effect as participants cannot 'see' each other

Online interviews - challengesTrust and rapport buildingDesign of interview scheduleKeeping people on topicDealing with technical hitchesMaintaining momentumDealing with silenceGuaranteeing the ethical rights of respondents including informed consent, confidentiality and privacy

Key resource: Salmons, J. (2010) Online Interviews in Real Time, Sage London

Some software optionsAdobe ConnectNow http://www.adobe.com/acom/connectnow/ TinyChat http://tinychat.com/ (probably need to upgrade for anything serious)GoogleTalk http://www.google.co.uk/talk/Many VLEs also have chat and virtual classroom tools that can be used for this kind of purpose.

So...The data collected by virtual interviews can be rich and valuable to the researcher, but the potential of on-line research should not be exaggerated: many of the issues and problems of conventional research methods still apply in the virtual venue Moreover, it is unlikely that online interviewing is going to replace face-to-face interviewing but rather it is another option in the methodological toolkit

Online research ethicsThere is currently a big push to embed research ethics more formally in the culture of the social sciences.

Yet there is far less of a consensus about online research ethics.

This asks the question is there anything special about the online environment that requires new set of ethical guidelines? Key resource: Economic and Social Research Council (2005). Research Ethics Framework.

Ethical decision making and Internet researchEss & AoIR (2002) stresses Ethical pluralism and argues that there is more than one ethical decision-making framework used to analyze and resolve those [internet research] conflicts.

Note: the world of chatrooms, MUDs and MOOs and USENET newsgroups, described in this report in 2002 is now radically transformed.

Key resource: Ess, C. and AoIR Ethics Working Committee (2002) Ethical decision-making and internet research http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf

Where does it fit in?One of the problems of mapping existing research ethics onto the online world is the difficulty of deciding how to categorise the spaces that you are observing/interacting with.Key resource: Internet Research Ethics: Digital Library, Resources Centre, and Commons - http://internetresearchethics.org/

Ethical ChallengesThe great variety of human inter/actions observable online and the clear need to study these inter/actions in interdisciplinary ways This interdisciplinary approach to research leads, however, to a central ethical difficulty: the primary assumptions and guiding metaphors and analogies - and thus the resulting ethical codes - can vary sharply from discipline to discipline, especially as we shift from the social sciences.Ess, C. and AoIR Ethics Working Committee (2002)

Careful and critical use ORMsSo ORMs are not a shortcut `easy optionMany issues and problems of onsite research remainDivide between onsite/online methods inappropriateMust be used, carefully and critically and appropriately in light of each specific research topic

Attempting to undertake online data collection is far easier than successfully accomplishing it. For those who chose to perform it, they must do so deliberately and cautiously. (Best and Krueger, 2004) While online methodological frameworks are in constant flux, change is not necessarily always progressive: there is a need for online researchers to practice their 'craft' with reflexivity. (Madge and OConnor, 2005)

Further readingExploring online research methods http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm/

Tristrams ORM bibliography on CiteULike http://www.citeulike.org/user/pigironjoe/tag/online_research_methods

Tristrams blog http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.posterous.com/ I talk about ORM sometimes and technology often on this blog.

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