RM2 ODL Qualitative Project Resources

3.1 Considering ethics

Informed consent

Before any data collection takes place, you must provide your participants with an information sheet and consent form. You can find more information about this in the Ethics, Rigour and Reflexivity chapter.

You must give everyone participating the Information sheet and consent form before the focus group/interview takes place. Completed consent forms should be returned to the researcher and you should verbally confirm consent before you start any data collection. In a survey, participants should complete a consent form before seeing any survey questions.

Confidentiality in Focus groups

Remember that everyone (both those participating in and those running the focus group) has a responsibility to maintain confidentiality of the discussion.

Discuss some ‘ground rules’ at the start with the group, and also go through the Information Sheet and consent form at the start, to ensure everyone is aware of their responsibilities. You may also want to include an ice-breaker to make your participants feel more comfortable.

3.2 Focus group structure

There are a number of stages to a focus group, and it’s not always exactly the same, but here is an example structure for a focus group:

Stage 1: Setting the scene. The topic of the project should be introduced by the facilitator, and everyone agrees to take part. It must be made clear to the people in your focus group a) that they do not have to answer any questions that they do not feel comfortable with, b) that the session will be recorded (if conducting your study online, also make sure to let your participants know they have a choice to have their camera on or off, but that the mic must be used), c) what will happen with the recordings (i.e. that they will be kept safe on University-approved servers and the transcript anonymised), d) that everyone has a responsibility to maintain confidentiality of the topics discussed in the group and e) that they are free to leave the session at any time. Run through the Information Sheet and Consent Form here, and discuss any ground rules you have. I would also raise the point here that there are a few questions to get through, and therefore you might have to step in to help manage time.
Stage 2: Recording. Remember to start recording and let your participants know when you do it. This is very important.
Stage 3: Introductions. Go around the table and ask everyone to introduce themselves. Start with yourself and the note-taker first. Everyone should state their first name clearly.
Stage 4: Ice-breaker. Ask a warm-up question or ice-breaker. The aim is to allow participants to introduce themselves, ensure everyone understands the procedure, and to encourage people to feel comfortable talking. Previous projects have used photos, cartoons, and media, or asked participants to generate meanings of the terms used in the discussion (e.g., “poor sleep”, “well-being”) to get people talking.
Stage 5: Discussion. This is where you ask your main questions, and follow-up questions. It is a good idea to prepare around five or six main questions, and perhaps highlight three or four that are most important to focus on. The discussion may follow a different order to that on the focus group schedule - this is fine.
Stage 6: Facilitating the discussion. The facilitator should be prepared to help steer conversation back on track, and balance discussion so that everyone gets a chance to contribute. Have a few specific prompts that relate to each question and/or some general prompts to keep the discussion flowing. What are you going to do if no-one participates? Or if only one person is contributing? For example… “has anyone else had a similar experience? Does anyone have a different view?” At the same time be ethical and avoid targeting individual people. Give participants the opportunity to describe their interpretations and take ownership. E.g., “How would…make you feel?”, “Have you ever noticed that…”, “Think back to when…”, “What was most important to you about…?”
Stage 7: Ending the discussion. It’s good to end the discussion by inviting anyone who would like to add anything, or sum up their thoughts on what was discussed, to do so (without putting individual participants on the spot). Bear in mind that once a focus group has taken place, it can be very difficult to remove one person’s contributions, as what they said is often closely tied up with what other participants said. This needs to be considered in advance: it may be that participants cannot request withdrawal of their data after the focus group has taken place. If so, this must be made clear in the information sheet and consent form, so that participants can make an informed choice about whether to take part.

3.3 Facilitation and note-taking

Facilitation/moderation

The facilitator (sometimes also known as the moderator) will be the person taking the lead during the focus group. They will be the one asking the questions of the participants, and the one facilitating the discussion. As you are aiming to mimic a naturalistic conversation, you have to build rapport. Ensure you allow everyone time to introduce themselves, and contribute to the ice-breaking phase by saying a bit about yourself.

A good facilitator tries to see things from the perspective of the people they are talking to throughout the focus group. They should not be listening out for good quotes and should not be thinking about what to analyse. The role of the facilitator is to listen to the participants, and understand their points of view.

Note-taking

It is a good idea to have a note-taker there. Hopefully there will be no IT issues that mean that the recording doesn’t work! Therefore, the note-taker should remind the facilitator about recording if required, and note down any impressions/initial thoughts around themes/good quotes. Also, you could note down how well the questions worked - were there any that participants didn’t understand? It should be clear from the recording who is contributing when; it is useful to note down here and there who is speaking at various points, to ensure it matches up later on.

3.4 Facilitating focus groups: How to manage the group?

Focus groups are designed to be an informal discussion in a moderated setting. This allows for the data collection to be flexible and occur in a collective, more natural way - however, moderating a discussion in a group setting can also be challenging. Below we have some top tips for how to manage focus groups.

Make sure your participants are comfortable: establish ground rules and expectations at the start, ensure that you are interested in their perceptions and experiences and that there are no right or wrong answers, start with an ice-breaker to warm your participants up and make sure nobody is put on the spot and participants don’t feel pressured to answer anything they do not wish to answer.
Manage the conversation effectively: make sure all participants have the opportunity to contribute if they wish and one participant doesn’t dominate the whole conversation, ensure that conversation doesn’t stray off topic or get stuck on one topic for too long. Give prompts if the participants struggle to get started on a question.
Stay neutral and listen: be careful not to provide your own opinion or views (this is surprisingly easy to do accidentally!) - this is about your participants and their experiences. Focus on listening to the participants and clarifying/prompting further if needed, give your participants time to gather their thoughts (learn to be comfortable with silent moments and don’t fill them in with your opinions).

View below some situations you may encounter when running a focus group: before checking the answer, have a think how you would manage these scenarios and discuss the answers with your group.

One/some participants are very quiet and one participant dominates the conversation

Suggested Solutions

The ice-breaker/easy opening questions are perhaps most important for quieter members of the group, to help make them feel more comfortable.
If you are running the focus group online, it might be a good idea to use the Raise hand feature - this would allow quieter members to show that they want to contribute, but without trying to gauge when to jump in the conversation. You can then take points in order of when they raised their hands.
If some people have contributed to part of the discussion and others haven’t, open it up to the rest by asking if anyone who hasn’t responded yet has anything to add. However, don’t put people on the spot by asking them directly.
Try to give everyone a fair chance to speak

The discussion is stuck on one topic

Suggested Solutions

Remind the members of the group that there are a number of different questions to explore, and that you are mindful of time, so it might be best to leave that topic for now, and you can return if there’s time at the end.

The discussion goes off topic

Suggested Solutions

The facilitator has to be mindful of this and be ready to steer the conversation back on topic if needed.
Remind the members of the group that there are a number of different questions to explore, and that you are mindful of time.
Gently remind participants of the question that was asked. If running the focus group online, you may wish to put your questions in the chat or present them with screen sharing so the participants can see the question.

Participants are not comfortable answering the questions in the language the focus group is conducted in

Suggested Solutions

Send questions in advance to your participants so they can prepare
Consider if the FG could be conducted in a different language (however, be mindful that this creates additional work with transcription and translations and requires the facilitator to be fluent in the language)
Give participants time to think and answer, and focus on making everybody feel comfortable at the start of the FG.

One participant looks uncomfortable and does not contribute

Suggested Solutions

Try to create opportunities for everybody to speak, but remember that you should not point fingers at individual participants
You cannot force anybody to speak, and sometimes participants might feel uneasy.
Remember that they don’t need to answer any of the questions if they don’t want to - it is unethical to force your participants to answer.

Nobody answers the question you asked

Suggested Solutions

Remember that this is the first time the participants may see the question, and they may need time to gather their thoughts
Consider sending questions to your participants in advance so they know what to expect.
Don’t be uncomfortable with a bit of awkward silence (particularly if running your FG online) and don’t fill the space with your opinions - let the participants take the lead.
Prepare prompts/probes that you can ask to help the participants get started.
You can ask if anybody would like to go first (don’t put an individual participant on the spot)

You are not sure what the participant meant/the participant answers very briefly

Suggested Solutions

You can ask if the participant would like to clarify the aspect of the answer you are not sure about.
You can ask the participant to elaborate further (they may not want to, which is fine!). If you do this, make sure that you are specific about what you want them to elaborate on (for example, “that’s really interesting, would you want to tell me a little bit more about why you think XXX?”)
If the participant does not know how to elaborate, you can ask if anybody else wants to add anything. Sometimes this will prompt the participant to build on their answer as a response to what the other participants are saying.

3.5 Facilitating interviews

Interviews differ from focus groups in some important ways, as the data collection is typically set up in a one-on-one situation. This means the types of questions you should ask, the types of answer you are likely to get, and the practical issues can be quite different to focus groups. Here are some top tips for how to conduct an interview.

Make an effort to develop rapport and make the participant feel comfortable.
If you are doing a sensitive topic, pay attention to how your participant is presenting and ask them if they need a break or if they would like to continue.
Focus on the person rather than taking notes - are you giving them encouragement to keep speaking (e.g. nods etc.)?
If doing a semi-structured interview, pay attention to whether the participant brings something up that could/should be followed up with an additional question
Not all interviews will be the same length - some people are very concise in how they answer whereas others talk a lot more so the overall interview length will vary
Try to end on a positive question if you can - it can help to lift the mood for the participant and leave them in a good place

3.6 GDPR-compliance and data management

In the UK, data protection is covered by the UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Your data collection and storage must comply with the GDPR principles.

See the University guidelines on:

handling confidential data

The University’s Data Protection and Freedom of Information office also has useful information on how to manage data.

Make sure that:

You have a data management plan in place before data collection (how and where are you storing the data, who will have access to it, how long do you need to store it for, what steps of confidentiality and anonymisation are you taking?)
Participants are made aware of your data management plan prior to any data collection in the information sheet and consent form
Data should be retained until after completion of the project on a password-protected encrypted drive and a secure database accessible only to the research team
Only use University-approved systems to collect, manage and store data - do not use external providers (such as Google or Dropbox), as they may not be GDPR compliant
If you share the data, your participants should be informed about this prior to taking part, and you should only share the anonymised data files
Do not share data via social media, Google Drive or personal email which is not secure.

If you are planning a qualitative dissertation, Ashley’s optional research skills session on data collection in Appendix B goes into this in more depth.