SMILE
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Unit 4: Research design

Face-to-face interviews

  • You must prepare your questions in advance.
  • It is a good idea to record your interviews
  • Interviews take up time, so plan for an hour or less (roughly 10 questions)
  • Stick to your questions, but be flexible if relevant or interesting issues arise during the interview

Focus groups

  • These take time to arrange, so prepare in advance (use an intermediary to help you if you can)
  • Who will be in your focus group? (think about age, gender)
  • Size of focus group (8-10 is typical)
  • Consider whether or not to have separate focus groups for different ages or genders (for example when discussing sex and sexuality)

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SMILE - Research design by Learning from WOeRk, University of Plymouth modified by Marion Kelt, Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License