Just like research is never ending in the life of a researcher, so also I do not want this blog to be totally over for us. I had started on an uncertain process, as I had never blogged before nor was very fond of publishing my private thoughts. But this was another domain – where you shared your ideas with your peers. As well as for the world to see !!! Sometimes I was unsure whether to be formal and at other times just gave in to the feelings, the tensions and the questions that overwhelmed me. Gradually a realization came over me that this was also a way of finding out for ourselves what we were searching for at that moment in time. It was like a research into our deepest thoughts and obligations brought out in print.
Now, as I struggle to make my real research more meaningful, my methods click, my hypothesis achievable – I feel that I have certainly gained as much from this blogging and unravelling of thought process as the Research methods class itself.
Showing posts with label Sanchita. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sanchita. Show all posts
Texts and more...
Around the beginning of the Research Methods course, I was excited to have found a book like Luker as text. I did not have the patience then to wait for every class and read the assigned chapters. I went through the entire book immediately with a hope to learning an important aspect of the academic world and also enjoying it immensely. I was finished with the preliminary reading within a few days but the thoughts lingered with me. As I started work with the Research Proposal I realized the necessity and utility of Knight. Knight and other research texts I had come across in the past, somehow fill me with more confidence about the task at hand. They provide a rigorous understanding of the definitions, descriptions, explanations about methods and how to go about practically doing them. Luker in retrospect is more of an overview for me. Even though not “a sugar-coated bitter pill” in the words of Shaw, Luker’s book nicely and gently introduces us to research and tries to make us get rid of some inherent fears we may have of committing to and accomplishing such work.
Comparing Luker and Knight close to the end of the proposal, provided me with an understanding of how much information/knowledge I needed from whom and when. I realize that it has surely been fruitful to experience the different ways of approaching a subject and accepting the various perspectives as that has allowed us to open up our minds and enabled us to see more.
Comparing Luker and Knight close to the end of the proposal, provided me with an understanding of how much information/knowledge I needed from whom and when. I realize that it has surely been fruitful to experience the different ways of approaching a subject and accepting the various perspectives as that has allowed us to open up our minds and enabled us to see more.
User-centred research at U of T
University of Toronto has its own guidelines for researchers and I thought I would have a look at them given that we are having a guest speaker who can address our concerns. I also plan to have University of Toronto students as my user base for a part of the study. I would then need to “gain access to data about students, staff and faculty held by the University of Toronto”. Interestingly the Office of the Vice President and Provost’s site informs that a considerable amount of research is conducted involving members of the university community. The Office of the Vice President Research has a Research Ethics Board (REB, that has to approve the research to be done and must be contacted at the research planning stages. I was excited to learn that I could request for data held on the Repository of Student Information (ROSI), the Human Resources Information System, or collected through surveys such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This would help to conduct research of 'student users' from various departments independent of each other.
Guidelines are provided in keeping with the following aims(which sounded very thoughtful to me, both with respect to those researched and the researcher): “to prevent survey fatigue, protect confidentiality and employee rights, and ensure that access does not conflict with any current or planned research to be conducted by the University or its administrative/academic units”.
Guidelines are provided in keeping with the following aims(which sounded very thoughtful to me, both with respect to those researched and the researcher): “to prevent survey fatigue, protect confidentiality and employee rights, and ensure that access does not conflict with any current or planned research to be conducted by the University or its administrative/academic units”.
User and research
A critical aspect of user-centred research is to understand who the potential users are, especially because early user involvement is a primary principle of user-centred design. This can be extremely relevant to HCI research as well. HCI research though concerns the user experience about probable usability of website, interface or software; it does not always involve user participation from the initial stages. User-centred processes try to include the actual users in the development process at the earliest possible time in an effort to correspond to the needs and behaviors of the users.
As I progress with my proposal I realize how much the method can be linked to the area of study. That is because my research findings are dependent on user feedback. My quest is dependent on how I embark on it than the findings themselves, as querying usability becomes an important part of the study too. When conducting user research, theorists recommend that several methods be used in order to obtain rich qualitative data that would help build a holistic view of the studied user group. Thus the most common methods used include interviews, observations and questionnaires with other methods such as cultural probes or artefact analyses being applied at times too. Interestingly, it also falls under the purview of exploratory research into the unknown.
As I progress with my proposal I realize how much the method can be linked to the area of study. That is because my research findings are dependent on user feedback. My quest is dependent on how I embark on it than the findings themselves, as querying usability becomes an important part of the study too. When conducting user research, theorists recommend that several methods be used in order to obtain rich qualitative data that would help build a holistic view of the studied user group. Thus the most common methods used include interviews, observations and questionnaires with other methods such as cultural probes or artefact analyses being applied at times too. Interestingly, it also falls under the purview of exploratory research into the unknown.
Census and Research
Recently, I had to do a debate which concerned the Long Form Census – and whether it should be cancelled or not. That exposed me to this singular method and authority of collecting data from a large number of the population. It also brought forth the fact that an equally immense number of organizations are dependent on that data for their research work as well as the fact that the information collected through the census is subjected to considerable and continuous analysis.
The Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) in its website states that since 2000, it has been in partnership with Statistics Canada to “transform quantitative social science research in Canada”. Researchers analyze the census data to enhance their understanding of the Canadian society. The census functions as the primary source of information about the population of Canada. It is in fact a benchmark against which all other data are measured and evaluated. It provides knowledge about language, education, income, housing, geographic mobility, ethnicity and so on. It is widely used by policy makers, city planners to businesses and marketing researchers and NGOs. Even though it does have issues regarding privacy, it is also true that it provides us researchers with an unimaginable treasure trove to dig into.
The Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) in its website states that since 2000, it has been in partnership with Statistics Canada to “transform quantitative social science research in Canada”. Researchers analyze the census data to enhance their understanding of the Canadian society. The census functions as the primary source of information about the population of Canada. It is in fact a benchmark against which all other data are measured and evaluated. It provides knowledge about language, education, income, housing, geographic mobility, ethnicity and so on. It is widely used by policy makers, city planners to businesses and marketing researchers and NGOs. Even though it does have issues regarding privacy, it is also true that it provides us researchers with an unimaginable treasure trove to dig into.
Peer Review
I guess I am too full of assignments right now. I was doing a peer review of the paper using ethnography and since ethnography makes use of pictures as well, I was inspired to use some images myself in this posting to depict what peer review is, instead of writing yet again. Hoping the pictures would serve more than a million words...
Dilemma concerning ethnography
I plan to make use of ethnography and am presently in the process of understanding how to “cover my bases” and be as transparent as possible and today’s class seemed to help a lot in this respect. Previously, I had come across some articles which addressed issues concerning ethnography that stated that it is a method which is not regarded to have as high a standing as certain other methods. And it is not just ‘quant’ researchers who have such views but ‘qual’ people share similar ideas. It has to be always substantiated by statistical calculations or concrete qualitative analysis. One of the basic reasons for this is the bias that a researcher or group of researchers can develop while conducting the field work. That is because, the research is analysed from one person or group’s point of view and their perception does come into play often. One of the ways of protecting ourselves from such criticism would be by being “extra super vigilante” while situating oneself into a culture or system. Thus the “importance of distance” plays an exceptionally major role in making the research credible.
Yet another attack against this method of research is that it studies one culture, organization, or system and tries to ‘see the world in a grain of sand’. This is true in some sense when the local provides an image of the global, the micro that of the macro. But it is also true that in a world as varied as ours, such study and its relevance can be highly limited. If I study one department in an organization, it is unlikely that the same gleanings from that study could be applied to another very different department. So studying one aspect of a company might not reveal much about the entire organization. It is difficult to defend ethnography in such a case. However, keeping in mind that all methods do have their drawback/s I guess conversely, ethnography too has its own (confident) position... enough to gain ground amongst the other research methodologies.
Yet another attack against this method of research is that it studies one culture, organization, or system and tries to ‘see the world in a grain of sand’. This is true in some sense when the local provides an image of the global, the micro that of the macro. But it is also true that in a world as varied as ours, such study and its relevance can be highly limited. If I study one department in an organization, it is unlikely that the same gleanings from that study could be applied to another very different department. So studying one aspect of a company might not reveal much about the entire organization. It is difficult to defend ethnography in such a case. However, keeping in mind that all methods do have their drawback/s I guess conversely, ethnography too has its own (confident) position... enough to gain ground amongst the other research methodologies.
"In the midst..."
The view from the “vantage point” is what ethnography aims to provide. According to Shaffir, “hanging around” has been and can be the best advice for conducting such field work. Similar other terms have been coined or associated over time with ethnography to reveal what it truly is. “Aculturisation” is one such term, which means that one becomes a part of the culture which is being investigated. It involves “direct engagement”, interaction and integration into a system or culture. “Going behind the scenes” to conduct research can prove to be consistently interesting as it also involves being “present” and “participating” in the natural and daily activities of that which is being studied. The participatory aspect of this form of research consists of becoming something close to a “member” or part of the whole or even non member “participant-as-observer” (Stebbins)and "learning" the community or people or system practices. Of extreme importance is “fitting in”, as that is what makes those being studied to openly provide insights into their inner-workings. And acquiring “first-hand information" is no doubt valuable and can possibly reveal many unknown or unthought-of issues.
Even though ethnography can be regarded as one of the most in-depth of research methods, it does have several drawbacks: there lies the risk of over-participation and subsequent abandonment of unprejudiced work leading to a biased outcome; it is time consuming – not simply in conducting field work but in analysis as well; potentially expensive and therefore limited to considerably small scale research; lacking in range or breadth and so on. Hopefully, in my small range proposal, it does find a place and provide me with "truths" that can prove to be beneficial enough to answer the deadly “So What?”
Even though ethnography can be regarded as one of the most in-depth of research methods, it does have several drawbacks: there lies the risk of over-participation and subsequent abandonment of unprejudiced work leading to a biased outcome; it is time consuming – not simply in conducting field work but in analysis as well; potentially expensive and therefore limited to considerably small scale research; lacking in range or breadth and so on. Hopefully, in my small range proposal, it does find a place and provide me with "truths" that can prove to be beneficial enough to answer the deadly “So What?”
Online Research Methods
My research idea prompts me to conduct a considerable amount of my research work via the internet. Therefore keeping with the various discussions going on regarding various methods I decided to write about this special but increasingly important and interesting form of researching.
Internet has facilitated and arguably stimulated a trend towards research by ‘ordinary’ citizens (though there remains the need of learning social research methodology); just like it has made possible expressing individual ideas, developing new software, creating a new culture and so on by the masses. Online research methods are gaining popularity by the day even for professional researchers and it surrounds the process of researching in, on, and through the internet. “One of the striking things about online research methods is their versatility and their range. Researchers from many disciplines, with varying methodological preferences, deploy a wide range of online research methods to an impressive variety of research problems” (Lee et.al.). However, a research design has to be constructed that would help in generating reliable and valid data. There are various kinds of Internet or online surveys like web surveys and email. Virtual ethnography concerns applying ethnographic approaches and sensibilities to the study of online environments looking especially into the economic, social and political contexts within which online activity takes place. Blogs, networking sites, online interviews and focus groups can all provide channels to looking into such multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). The internet also happens to preserve and provide an access to a large amount of data being archived in data sources of a size and complexity impossible for any one researcher to assemble on their own. Digital traces left behind by our electronic interactions are just one of the ways in which data is being created and it is very much an ongoing process. The huge archival resources of information on the net are not fixed, time-bound, geographically limited; are contributed/distributed by multi-user; and valuable to researchers from a wide variety of disciplines and interests. There exists a large volume of software today for developing, conducting and analyzing the data in the semantic web, for mapping networks and examining network properties, for data warehousing and data mining and other technologies, techniques and procedures. Keeping in mind the ethical implications of technological change especially privacy and confidentiality the internet with its ever growing repository of information and data has emerged as having a singular potential for ongoing social research.
Adapted from “The Internet as a Research Medium” by Raymond M. Lee, Nigel Fielding, Grant Blank.
Internet has facilitated and arguably stimulated a trend towards research by ‘ordinary’ citizens (though there remains the need of learning social research methodology); just like it has made possible expressing individual ideas, developing new software, creating a new culture and so on by the masses. Online research methods are gaining popularity by the day even for professional researchers and it surrounds the process of researching in, on, and through the internet. “One of the striking things about online research methods is their versatility and their range. Researchers from many disciplines, with varying methodological preferences, deploy a wide range of online research methods to an impressive variety of research problems” (Lee et.al.). However, a research design has to be constructed that would help in generating reliable and valid data. There are various kinds of Internet or online surveys like web surveys and email. Virtual ethnography concerns applying ethnographic approaches and sensibilities to the study of online environments looking especially into the economic, social and political contexts within which online activity takes place. Blogs, networking sites, online interviews and focus groups can all provide channels to looking into such multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). The internet also happens to preserve and provide an access to a large amount of data being archived in data sources of a size and complexity impossible for any one researcher to assemble on their own. Digital traces left behind by our electronic interactions are just one of the ways in which data is being created and it is very much an ongoing process. The huge archival resources of information on the net are not fixed, time-bound, geographically limited; are contributed/distributed by multi-user; and valuable to researchers from a wide variety of disciplines and interests. There exists a large volume of software today for developing, conducting and analyzing the data in the semantic web, for mapping networks and examining network properties, for data warehousing and data mining and other technologies, techniques and procedures. Keeping in mind the ethical implications of technological change especially privacy and confidentiality the internet with its ever growing repository of information and data has emerged as having a singular potential for ongoing social research.
Adapted from “The Internet as a Research Medium” by Raymond M. Lee, Nigel Fielding, Grant Blank.
“Beat the Uncertainty”
Understanding the overlapping areas of the petals of the research daisy and pooling in all of them to the core seem to be one of the trickiest tasks, very much like introducing aliens into a Michelangelo conversation. Luker’s research process seems to be extremely exhilarating at times. To think of it as logic of discovery instead of logic of verification and theory generating and not just theory testing makes us reach a whole new level.
Whether it is gaining entrée into the information world and then deciding through data cropping what is relevant to the large picture: it seems daunting when the task has not even begun. Organizational research, which I am planning to partake, not only involves assessing the extent to which a program has achieved its intended results but also acute observation of the users and usability of software interfaces. Meta-analysis is also often regarded as the dominant approach for the organizational sciences. Ethnographic research is no doubt one of the most applicable to our changing times. Pertaining to the earlier described visual research methods, there are in reality various exotic ways of finding out that information which will lead us to the deep meaning, for example, there are processes like Sensory analysis which is a actually a branch of psychology. Personally I was once very interested in research through photography. But then, sometimes I feel the need to know the canonical ways too so that they can give me a more rigid structure. What is required, in short, is an awakening – visual or verbal, that would point me to the North Star.
Whether it is gaining entrée into the information world and then deciding through data cropping what is relevant to the large picture: it seems daunting when the task has not even begun. Organizational research, which I am planning to partake, not only involves assessing the extent to which a program has achieved its intended results but also acute observation of the users and usability of software interfaces. Meta-analysis is also often regarded as the dominant approach for the organizational sciences. Ethnographic research is no doubt one of the most applicable to our changing times. Pertaining to the earlier described visual research methods, there are in reality various exotic ways of finding out that information which will lead us to the deep meaning, for example, there are processes like Sensory analysis which is a actually a branch of psychology. Personally I was once very interested in research through photography. But then, sometimes I feel the need to know the canonical ways too so that they can give me a more rigid structure. What is required, in short, is an awakening – visual or verbal, that would point me to the North Star.
Not Random, but a Rainbow...
Too much of anything is regarded as bad. But would we say the same about information. In an age where information is readily available and gaining knowledge would supposedly lead to wisdom, one would certainly announce that there is no harm in producing or assimilating knowledge. And we surrender our soul to the passion of gaining that which has not been achieved – in other words that hypothesis we can absolutely believe in and proclaim to the world. However that knowledge often comes at the cost of something opposite of frivolous. Then we question our methodologies, ethics but rarely do we turn ourselves away from finding out new truths and soon it becomes something acceptable even if it is more than just stem cell research.
Trusting a particular methodology and trying to get results through its application is yet another dilemma. There is always choice and also invariably the wrong choice. Someone, somewhere, sometime might come up with something that would nullify previous claims, solve a bigger mystery, – and there might not be an end to it. Life with its various speculation and realities would raise more issues by the day. Trying to make meaning, finding a path, meandering through information I try to see light of day, hoping that the interdisciplinary nature of my stream would garner some kind of enlightenment. These random thoughts help to put me in perspective – sometimes deep, sometimes coherent but always elusive – catching them and transforming the written world – is the motto needed to follow through in life’s travails and thus embark on a path, chosen for life.
Trusting a particular methodology and trying to get results through its application is yet another dilemma. There is always choice and also invariably the wrong choice. Someone, somewhere, sometime might come up with something that would nullify previous claims, solve a bigger mystery, – and there might not be an end to it. Life with its various speculation and realities would raise more issues by the day. Trying to make meaning, finding a path, meandering through information I try to see light of day, hoping that the interdisciplinary nature of my stream would garner some kind of enlightenment. These random thoughts help to put me in perspective – sometimes deep, sometimes coherent but always elusive – catching them and transforming the written world – is the motto needed to follow through in life’s travails and thus embark on a path, chosen for life.
A new begining...
The Microsoft motto ‘Turning ideas into Reality’ always sounded very impressive to me. If we delve deeper into its meaning we may find that we can apply it to our academic lives wherein we wanted to further our studies and here we are now at the ischool, and maybe we wish to conduct some kind of research someday and this class of ours is a step towards that future.
I have a Masters in English and my interest in Literature and Languages made me look up the etymology of the word “research” : it comes from French ‘recerche’ meaning ‘to seek out, search closely’. I guess we are all looking for something in life and as we think more about it and write about it as well, we will be able to find new avenues of looking at things hitherto unseen.
I certainly do not know whether we will get an opportunity to dance salsa as our text suggests but we are definitely going to sweat it out a lot this term given the number of assignments. But with the hope that this small blogging exercise will point us in the right direction and who knows we might even find ourselves as Luker says “drifting into new intellectual areas…” soon.
I have a Masters in English and my interest in Literature and Languages made me look up the etymology of the word “research” : it comes from French ‘recerche’ meaning ‘to seek out, search closely’. I guess we are all looking for something in life and as we think more about it and write about it as well, we will be able to find new avenues of looking at things hitherto unseen.
I certainly do not know whether we will get an opportunity to dance salsa as our text suggests but we are definitely going to sweat it out a lot this term given the number of assignments. But with the hope that this small blogging exercise will point us in the right direction and who knows we might even find ourselves as Luker says “drifting into new intellectual areas…” soon.
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