This is the final blog post for the course, and this time the assignment is to reflect upon what we’ve learned and how combining methods can be used to answer complex research methods.
The first week started out quite philosophical by reading texts by Kant and Socrates on what knowledge is and how it’s built upon what we perceive or on logical argumentation. The terms a priori and a posteriori were introduced, which have been influencing the following parts of the course. To me, it’s been a new way of thinking divided into what our experiences and senses tell us, and what we understand through logical argumentation like the discussion between Socrates and Theaetetus showed. It was completely eye-opening and I found it to be a very interesting seminar. Through the theme, we discussed how research is based on our senses and how our perception is influenced by every condition we live under, such as time, culture, what gender we have and what time we live in. This also meant that the term ‘objectivity’ had to reconsidered. The following week, what we learned was connected to dialectic which is a method to seek truth by rational arguments. The method part of the course was about to start, but not completely yet. First we had to go through trying to define what theory is, which turned out to be more easy to do by discussing what theory is not.
It wasn’t obvious in the beginning why we started in this end, but through the course it has become clear why. By starting with these concepts and discussing knowledge, perception and objectivity, we got tools to discuss science and research. This connected to the second part of the course - methods in research. The philosophical approach has been a way to question the knowledge we collect and actually reflect upon what it is we are gathering in research, how it is used to form theory and what theory actually is, and to not throw around with the word ‘objective’ without actually be aware of what it means.
The second part was more practical and more hands-on what we actually will perform in terms of methods when doing research, even though it wasn’t meant for learning exactly how to perform different task but more for awareness of which methods there are and when they are suitable, what it’s benefits are and what limitations they hold. When the course stopped being as philosophical, it seems like the participants of the course had a consensus on what the methods implicated which made the different blog posts I’ve read seem more in line with each other.
Key concepts of the method part have been qualitative and quantitative studies, case studies and design research. It was emphasized during a lecture with Haibo Lee, which a unfortunately wasn’t able to attend but have catched up on afterward, the importance of formulating the research question. This was illustrated by a clip from the movie “Johnny English”, where it seemed like the main character always could find easier and more straightforward ways.
So from a more hands-on, practical point of view, we learned the importance of formulating what you study. We also put quite a lot of time into discussing how to do it and how different methods can be appropriate for different circumstances. If you aim to seize people’s opinion, qualitative methods can be to prefer, but if you study people’s reaction then maybe quantitative methods could be better if you don’t want to interfere with the study and by mistake affect the participants. To perform different methods, such as interviews, requires skills to not affect the result. Other situations, and for example if there is a unique situation, a case study is another strategy in research. In this, you can combine methods. I think what’s been most valuable during this part of the course has been to discuss how combining methods is important and to put a lot of time into the research design. When conducting a study, you need to be perfectly clear to begin with what you are looking for and aware of different methods strengths and weaknesses. Something I will remember when starting my thesis work will be to do pilot studies before actually starting the research, because I learned during my bachelor thesis work that the first interview I held wasn’t exactly the same as the last one since I found out early on what wasn’t working from what I’d planned beforehand. Even if you put time into research design, you don’t know until you try. This is why it’s also important to do user tests if you make user design research, which is another area I might come across later on being in the field of media technology.
I think the setup of the course has been great. To read a lot of material and first try to reflect upon it on your own to then attend seminars and discuss it under relaxed circumstances meant to give you knowledge to reevaluate what you’ve learned and then make a last reflection. To end by giving and getting feedback from others have been very fruitful.
Something I would have liked to have is a lecture on is how to analyze data when you have it. The focus for this course have been how to gather it in the best way, and how to look at it and understand that you never will get the absolute truth. But how to handle the data is another story and would have been interesting. It was mentioned in a lecture that research comes from analyzing and not gathering. So after discussing what guidelines there are to how many times you should do a test and how many participants the study should include, it would have been interesting to talk about what to do with the results. This might be difficult without real situations and I think this will discussed when we do the thesis work. In this course we touched upon it when we discussed that research can be made to strengthen existing theory or to build new theory, and both are equally relevant. We also discussed it in the beginning of the course when we stated that results actually could turn out the same over and over due to coincidence. So overall, I think it’s been a very interesting and eye-opening course that will come of use for me later on in my studies and work, and I'm looking forward to being able to use it.
fredag 30 oktober 2015
All comments throughout the course
Theme 1
Hi!
To start off, I liked your blogpost and found it interesting. As many others have commented, I also found Plato easier to read so I'm impressed you found it the other way around! And I also agree that it was great to read others interpretations on these texts, it helped a lot to gain understanding.
I agree with your question “How is it possible to consider any knowledge to be a priori, since we as humans exist in the world and therefore are influenced by it from birth?”. It's a question that is relevant when applying these philosophers on the reality - how we actually percieve and live in the world. I wonder if not these cathegorizations of the world that esepcially Kant did, would rather be a way of cathegorize the way we think, and accepting that we don't know everything. Human is influenced from birth, but if we say that we only take up a small place in the world then maybe everything isn't after all about how we perceive it but how it exists in itself, with or without us?
An interesting subject to discuss, and I think we could continue the discussion for a long time and learn more from the philosophers out there without coming to an answer.
Hi Calle!
Great blogpost! Always interesting to read what others have picked up from the theme. I think you had a good language and a good discussion, and it was easy to follow your text! I stoppped at the part about perceiving the world through a baby's eyes though, and started to wonder: wouldn't it be even more objective to take a person and let it grow up alone without the society's impact? Then the person would still have experience of the world, and clearly perceive it in some way, which would be different from a baby who is both new to the world but also affected by it from day 1. Just a thought, as with all philosopophy so far I don't hold any answers!
Hi Anton!
Very interesting to read your thoughts on the theme - good job! I especially found the part about truly objective knowledge interesting - knowledge from "God's point of view". I guess this knowledge would be a priori though? I mean, God didn't experience - he just created.
Keep up the good job!
Hi!
I read your pre- and post blog and I think you did a great job with this theme! I think it's well written and easy to follow your explanations on what we've read this week.
I agree with what you've written in this blog post about the understanding through cathegorization and I think it was an important part of the lecture and seminar.
I think you ended this post in a great way by the quote “Perception without conception is blind. Conception without perception is empty.” I found this quote a bit difficult to understand before reading your post, and I didn't bother looking into it. Now on the other hand , I understand it.
Hello Ellinor!
Great posts, I read the pre- and post reflection and I think you managed to summarize in a good way that was easy to understand. I agree that the texts were difficult at first and that the lecture and seminar helped out a lot!
I really liked this part: "One could say that there are as many worlds as there are people, since each and every one of us is the main character of our own story and perceive things from a first person view". I think you wrote it well and it's an interesting point of view. I also liked the part about objectivity and I agree that we use it in a slightly different way in our everyday life than the philosophers do. I guess we will never be completly objective, but we all use the term on the same conditions and with the same intention.
Keep up the good work!
Good job with theme 1! I think it was easy to follow your thoughts and explanations and I enjoyed your own reflections as well! I think you straightened out what was pre-Kant and post-Kant in a good way, I wasn't sure exactly what it meant earlier but now I think I do. I agree with the comment above, it would have been nice to have something to go with the ending quote to understand it better, but I assume you mean the post-Kant thoughts: that we can no longer accept the world as it is itself.
Keep up the good job!
Hi!
Good job with this theme, I think your text was well-written and very interesting to follow. I think you managed to bring clarity in the subject using your own words and I like the way you explained what is pre-Kant and post-Kant. I also found the last line interesting: "The reason for that are those imprinted forms of intuition and categories which Kant is describing, or the soul, as Plato says." It's a good comparision and I think it shows that you understood the subject and authors.
8.
Hello!
Good job with the theme, I think you wrote an interesting reflection and I agree completely that the texts were difficult to grasp!
I think it’s very interesting what happens if you’re raised beyond our society and norms, and like you said about being raised by a dog – what would that mean? I argue however that if you are raise with a dog, you’re still fundamentally different and therefore have to be a human. Of course, the environment has a huge impact and the baby would not be what’s considered ”normal” in any way, but it still has too many similarities to us. And I guess you could discuss, is it a different world? Or is it the same world from a different perspective? Is there such a thing as an objective view of the world, or are we all too affected by our perception and senses to make any sense out of it? The core of this theme, and it’s still up for discussion, but I guess that’s the point of philosophy.
Keep up the good job!
9.
Hello!
Good job with the text, I thought it was very interesting. I agree that this theme has been difficult and it seems like we all have had a hard time understanding it on our own.
I think your thoughts on if the world exists with or without us was interesting, and I don't hold an answer either. I would like to think that the world exist even if we are not present, but as you say - if there is no one there to perceive and know...
I guess we'll never know and that that's the point of philosophy.
Keep up the good job!
10.
Hello!
Good job, I think you've learned a lot from this week (haven't we all).
I think you picked out the most important and interesting parts from the theme. I like that you explained the quote "perception without conception is blind, conception without perception is empty".
Theme 2
Hello!
I think you did a great job this week, you explained the theme and context in a way that was easy to understand and I'm happy to see that we interpreted the theme in a similar way (it's not always easy to know if you got it right!)
I really liked your own thoughts on the subjects and that you didn't just present the authors point of view! And as you write, it's true that we face a new era - we can both consume and produce content. I wonder how the media will look in the future and what the next step is.
Keep up the good work!
Hello Anton!
Good job summarizing this theme - I think you're spot on what it's been about and you have good reflections.
I think it's especially interesting to read about destroying aura for massproduction and distribution, it would have been interesting to read some more on your thoughts though! To our generation, it feels so obvious that you can reproduce art and use propaganda for political purposes,and that this has revolutionary potentials, but I guess it wasn't at the time.
Keep up the good work with the texts, I think you do a good job explaining different concepts and you really contribute with good examples during the seminars!
Hello Alexis!
Good job with this theme, you use a good language that is easy to follow and you explain the most important concepts from the week. I liked your explanation of plationic realism, it helped me understand it even better. I think it's great that you search for more material than just the course litterature.
Hello!
I really enjoyed reading your text and think you handled this week's theme from a different angle than the texts I've read so far. Very interesting! I agree that imagination shouldn't be lost in the search for science, imagination is important as well and can lead to something truly revolutionary.
I also liked your reflection on mass media and how it can be used in a political way. It is dangerous, but at the same time it can't be avoided. Everyone has the right to express themself as long as it doesn't violate our laws or human rights. But as you write, as long as we all learn to be critical to what we come across..
Keep up the good work with this course!
Hello!
I think your post was really good, and I have to say that I like how you connected to fascism because I hadn't really grasped the link previously. I agree that it was easier to understand nominalism when it was compared to platonic realism, and I found it funny that realism wasn't what I thought it would be (the name doesn't really make it justice in today's world view). I think it's good that you covered the relationship between the enlightenment and nominalism. I also liked your own example with computers and communication.
Hello Elin!
Good job with capturing the main concepts of the week. I think all of us struggled with nominalism and what it meant. I guess this is because it's a different way to viewing things than we are used to. I think we all know that when making reasearch (and this is where it's connected to the enlightenment), you have to look at things for what it is. But in the everyday life, you make generalizations and can't view eveyrthing as unique. But that has more to do with how we try to undestand the world.
Keep up the good work! I liked how you structured your text :-)
Hello!
Interesting blog post! I agree with you that is feels difficult to be thinking in a nominalistic way, but I also agree with the comment by Ellinor above - it's a good thing to be aware of how we cathegorize things and today it's a big discussion about gender. In that case, it's a good thing. But it's difficult in the everyday life. You have to make generalizations to be able to express yourself and talk about the world.
I think it was great that you were clear about your own opinions, interesting read. Keep up the good work!
Hello!
I think you wrote an interesting blog post and I liked that you focused on the concepts of realism and nominalism! It was quite confusing for me as well in the beginning. I liked "For a realist the true nature of an object lies in its concept and for a Nominalist it lies in the object itself that we can perceive", it was thought provoking because you narrowed it down in a good way!
Very interesting to connect this to the French and Russian revolution!
Really good text about this theme! I especially liked your own examples, they came with a different input than I've thought about before. It's true that technology helps us understanding. It's also good to read about the historical context - before attending the seminar I didn't realize that it wasn't obvious to everyone at that time that German national socialism was awful. To have that understanding is important when reading the texts. As a comment above said, it would be interesting to read more about your own opinions on the subject! Keep up the good work!
I agree that it wasn't so clear and that the seminar provided better understanding! It was difficult to speak about realism before actually understanding what it was - we associate the term with what we think is the "real" world. I found it helpful to understand when and where the texts were written as well.
Good reflection, it was easy to follow and you write well.
Theme 3:
Hi Calle!
Interesting read, I like how you connect this theme with the previous ones and brought up concepts of for example "a priori" and "a posteriori". I think the discussion on math is good and to me, it's a strange thought that math wouldn't be a theory in its foundation. Isn't a priori knowledge a theory since we came up with it, making it a priori?
Keep up the good work!
Very nice blog post Anton! I liked reading your thoughts on the subject. I started to think about theories that are no built on other theories and I can't come up with one either. So which was the first theory? What knowledge can we consider true without theories?
I like that you wrote "we are also limited in our observations by our senses and our mind as discussed in previous seminars." and to me, this is the core of this theme.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Alexis and thanks for a good blog post! I found it very interesting to follow your thoughts and I liked your conclusion in the end that a strong theory comes with a logical argumentation. It seems that that is how we can have theories in fields we can't see or get empirical data from, as you write. I like that you state that a theory doesn't have to be true, which I think brings the discussion about theory forward. I also like that you talk about theory as something that simplifies something that is complex. I think this is something you see through school, you start out simple and then you find out that it's actually more to it than you're being taught. By making it simple, you make it accessible.
Keep up the good job!
Hi! Good blog post, I think you summarized the theme well and I like your explanation of theory, I think you did it well! I liked that you explained both scientific and philosophical theory, and I liked your definition of "truth" since it actually makes it possible to use the term together with theory. It would have been interesting if you wrote more in the end about objectivity, you mentioned it quite briefly but it's a good topic. Maybe we can't be objective when we do research, even though we try to. How does it affect the results?
Keep up the good work!
Nice blog post, it was easy and interesting to follow your thoughts. Good to see that you've come to new reflections after the seminar, it was the same for me. I liked your example with Big Bang. I also think you explained the difference between theory and hypothesis in a good way. Doesn't hypothesis have to be based on theory in some extent though? When can it be completly independent?
Keep up the good work!
Interesting post! I missed the lecture with Leif Dahlberg and hadn't come across 'practical knowledge" and 'theoretical knowledge' before, but I can see how that related to our studies compared to at Stockholm University. I don't see how your first definition of theory is wrong though, isn't that what theory in general tries to do? I think this theme just extended the meaning of it but it still fits in the explanation of theory.
Good job with this theme, keep it up!
Theme 4
Hi!
Thanks for a good blog post, it was interesting to read. I liked your analyzes, for example that qualitative research often follows quantitative (instead of the other way around) and that the design makes the research in some extent subjective due to how the survey is composed. Do you think one method is easier to use than another in terms of not affecting the person in the study?
Hi Anton!
Great blog post, it provided more discussion and was more thought-provoking than what I got from this week - very interesting to read! I have to ask though - how do you mean that some questions can't be answered quantitatively or qualitatively? What would that be besides metaphysics?
I liked your discussion on quantitative data not being necessarily more objective and true. Even if qualitative data is subjective, I guess it could be objective in the terms of one person's opinion. Quantitative data can still process opinion but in a different way.
Hi Arvid!
Good job with the blog post, it was interesting! I hadn't actaully thought about how I arranged my qualitative data in the bachelor thesis work until now, I thought of it as qualitative but we did arrange it and present it in a way I would associate more with quantitative research. Interesting to think about, but from what I've learned about qualitative data as this week, you can observe after different parameters and still call it qualitative as well. Tricky!
I like that you explained "wicked problems", I didn't pick it up at the seminar so it was good to get now!
Hi Alexis!
Great read, I think you grasped the theme and presented it in a good way. You explained the different methods in a good way with it's benefits and limitations. I like that you explained wicked problems, I didn't pick it up completly at the seminar so it's good to get better understanding
Hi!
Good job with this theme, I think you are right when you say that you benefit from combining quantitative and qualitative research. When you encounter a "wicked problem" you need to. I wouldn't say that quantitative data is objective though, but it depends on the subject. When you do a research design, you might influence by the design itself. It can be objective though, but not necessarily.
Great job, keep it up!
Hi!
Very nice to read your reflection this week. I agree on combining quantitative and qualitative, it's really difficult to put one over the other without knowing the context or what we are investigating. Is quantitative research really more for engineers when you think about our subject media technology? A lot of what we study and work with is how people interact with technology and media, and that might be studied qualitatively.
I think it's interesting that you can't really draw any definitive lines what's a qualitative or quantitative study since it really comes down to what you study.
Keep up the good work! I like that you explained "wicked problems".
Hi!
Great reflection, it was an interesting read. I thought it was different this week as well since we actually know more about it to begin with. It seems we all agree on the combination of quantitative and qualitative research depending on the subject. I agree that qualitative data can be difficult to handle, even if you translate it into different parameters. It still requires more work, but it also gives more understanding of complex problems so more work doesn't mean it's not necessary to do. I found it strange in the research articles I've read recently that they tend to gather so much data quantitativly, but interview only a few. Then again, you don't need interviews or face-to-face meeting to get quantitative data. But I still wonder how much data you need for it to be "valid" and "enough".
Hi!
I think you did a great work with this theme! As you said, it's not a fine line betwen quantitative and qualitative research. To process qualitative data you might need to translate it into parameters, which kind of make it quantitative data based on a qualitative method.
As you write about Ilias study and choice of quantitative measurement, I think that was a clever choice to not affect the participants. The chosen method for a research totally depend on what you are researching, there is no such thing as a more objective research when comparing qualitative and quantitative but you still need to think about how the participants react to the assignment.
Keep up the good work!
Hi Stina!
Great reflection this week. I agree that this information about research methods would have come in handy when we did or bachelor thesis, it would have been smart to do some piloting before using the questionnaires. Scary thought that people can put years into design research, maybe it's necessary in some cases but I guess you could gather new data if it turned out to be a bad design.
I would be interested in knowing how many participants there should be in a study. You want to get a lot of data, but how much is the minimum to still say it can be used?
Hi!
I agree that this week's theme hasn't been groundbreaking, it has been pretty straightforward within an area we've already seen some of. But don't you think it has been interesting to discuss it anyways? To me, it wasn't obvious that qualitative data is often somehow translated into quantitative data to be able to process it and present it. I used the data this way when I did my bachelor thesis work but didn't think about it till now.
I think a lot can be researched withing quantitative data, but the combination of the two seems to be the best for complex questions. Sometimes you just want an answer though, and then quantitative is easier.
I think as an engineer student in media technology, it is relevant to use qualitative methods since our area isn't purerly technological :-)
Good blog post, I agree on a lot of what you are writing. Keep up the good work!
Theme 5
Hi Calle!
Thanks for your reflection, I missed the lecture by Haibo so it was great to read about it. It seems to have been a good one! I agree that it's hard to leave an idea or an approach on a problem, I too get easily attached to it and want to continue to work on it. I think this was really interesting in the course "Reflekterande designprocess" where I think most of us had to leave our original ideas to work with new ones after feedback from our teachers.
I agree that it was interesting to discuss that data in itself isn't knowledge, it's part of the method. Knowledge comes from analyzing the data. I guess we make some sort of analyzing directly when we see data since we've considered it knowledge even without processing the information we've gathered. To analyze data is tricky though, especially when there is a huge amount of it. It would have been interesting to have some lectures on how to handle and analyze data, and what a smart approach would be.
Hi!
Interesting blog post. I like how you brought up that in design research it is the process that is the empirical data. I think this is important since you often talk about how gathering data in forms of observation or answers is the actual data, but here it's about the process and a different kind of learning and gaining knowledge.
I would argue that it isn't research if you try out a prototype yourself without others as well, but trying it out yourself is necessary in the proccess of making research. It is knowledge in itself, as you point out. Regardless of what study you do, you probably want more than just one person participating.
Good job with this theme! I think you did a good reflection.
Hi Alexis!
Thanks for your thoughts on this week's theme. I think you structured it well and it was easy to follow. I like your summary of Haibo's lecture and found it extra interesting since I wasn't able to participate in it. It seemed interesting since it had a different approach, more entrepreneurship than research.
I agree that the second one was harder to follow since it was quite improvised. Is it really artificial data when conducting studies on prototypes though, shouldn't qualitative data in that case be called artificial as well in that case? Or do you mean that there is different background research which is necessary to do research with prototypes?
Hi Ellinor!
As always, very interesting to read your thoughts on the theme. I really like how you connect it with knowledge we gained previously in the course. I agree with what you write in the beginning, that it was a shame we didn't have a seminar. I found the seminars great since they were for understanding the theme and not for examination, making it valuable to participate.
I think it was interesting to read about prototypes and design and how you connect it to the HCI course we took. In a way, I guess it would be possible to make generalisations on how people would react to a prototype if you have done similar designs before. I agree though that it's a benefit to include others in testing and not just trust a designer's judgement. I think this theme is quite hard to discuss since you want to discuss specific cases when making prototypes, not just prototypes in general.
Again, good job, keep it up!
Hi!
I think you did an interesting reflection even though I agree it isn't as much to reflect upon this week. The seminar's are always helpful since you come across different perspective that you might not come up with yourself. I like your critical take on how engineering problems have to involve maths and I think you stated some good examples of situations where it isn't necessarily true. I guess Haibo means that engineering problems are within the technical area, but our education is broad and not only technical.
Even though I like the discussion on how finding the problem is key when making research, I also like that it's pointed out that it's important to find the simplest solution. I think this might be easy to miss when you focus on solving a problem and might consider it completed when it's done, regardless of how complicated the solution might be. Interesting to have in mind.
Good job once again, keep it up!
Hi Stina!
Very nice and well written blog post! I think you structured it well, it was easy to follow and a nice read.
I agree with you and most people commenting that it is unclear what Haibo meant by using math to solve all engineer problems. As you say, all engineer problems don't include technical problems. From what I've heard about hiring engineers, studying as much math as we do contributes to a different way of analyzing and solving problems so maybe it's a skill and a way of thinking even if we don't use it directly.
Keep up the good job!
Hi Elvira!
Nice reflection, I missed Haibo's lecture so it was good to read about it and catch up!
I agree that it was a shame we didn't have a seminar, they help out a lot and give better understanding. It's good to be able to discuss the theme and also to do it in a form that is not for examination but for understanding.
It seems Haibo's lecture had a more practical view of prototyping and making research. It would have been nice to also have a lecture about how to handle and analyze data in a proper way when we're at the subject.
Keep up the good job!
Hello Rasmus,
thanks for a good blog post. I think you did a great job explaining concepts of the theme by using examples, it made it easier to understand. I think it's good that you explaing both by examples that are typical associations to 'design' and ICT, but also other situations.
I think you're right when you write that design is data in design research, since it leads to knowledge. Prototyping makes it possible to evaluate and then use it in reality.
Keep up the good job. It was very nice to read how you connected this theme with other courses we've read.
Hi S. Rickard!
Thank you for a good blog post, it was very well written and structured and a joy to read.
I agree that it would have been interesting to have a seminar and discuss this theme, I think a lot of us have come to the conclusion that there is more to this theme then we know by ourselves and it would have been nice to get others thoughts as well.
Howsoever, from the second lecture you write about how the lecturer says that interviewing isn't research until the data has been analyzed. Do you agree with this? I think data is research even if it's not processed so it's a weird statement to me.
Keep up the good work!
Hi!
Well written blog post, it seems you did a good job this week and didn't have any problems with the theme. It would have been nice to read about your own personal reflections on the theme though. I agree that it would have been better with a seminar instead of an extra lecture, especially since the second lecture wasn't prepared.
Theme 6
Hi Anton!
Thanks for a well written reflection. I came to the same conclusions as you did and found case studies more interesting to talk about this week. I think you wrote it well when you described it as organic, that it takes unexpected turns. I also like that you said case studies often provide new theory rather than proving something. A case study is something very practical and natural to me, it's not as set up as most studies are (I guess I case study still can be but you know my point). It's a scenario, which makes it very interesting.
Hello Arvid!
It seems like you understood the theme and I enjoyed reading your reflection. I think you provided good examples, both from what's been brought up at this seminar but also from the first theme we had. I think you're right to say that a case study is not defined by its methods, since it's not really a method in itself but a way of thinking when doing research. A combination of research techniques.
Another well-written and interesting reflection Alexis! We didn't have the discussion in our group on how many participants a study should have, and while I agree that one is enough for such a study as you describe, I wonder what guidelines one should follow otherwise? How many times do you need to make a study or how many participants do you need to draw general conclusions? This makes me think of theme 3 where we discussed this a bit and how conclusions are assumptions we find credible.
I think you described case studies well and how it's ment for gaining knowledge in comparision to confirm theories. Good job!
Hi!
I really liked your reflection, I think it contributed to this discussion in a new way! We did not talk about longitudinal studies and I haven't even thought about this in this context, so it was very interesting to read about. I'm curious what study the person in your course was in though!
I agree with what you write about focus groups and that small groups are to prefer to make people feel comfortable. I think it might be a problem in foucs groups though, that people can affect eachother. At the same time, I think a benefit of focus groups are that the group can bring up subjects one would not think of on its own. But as with all methods, there are positive and negative aspects.
Good job with the theme and overall through the course!
Hi Ellinor!
It seems you've grasped the theme this week again! I enjoyed your discussion on objectivity and how it can be more difficult in qualitative research due the "intimacy" in the method form, and also how you connect the discussion on objectivity to the one we had early on in the course. I think you can distance yourself if you're a good interviewer, the same way I think a good interviewer knows how to follow up questions in a way that makes the participant explain his thoughts and experiences.
I also found articles with a lot of personal reflections, which made the quality of the article poorer in my eyes..
Good job with the course, it's been interesting to follow your reflections!
Hello!
I think you explained case studies really well so thanks for that! I understand how you mean though with your example of a man that hits a head, but I wouldn't agree on "If there are more than one people is not a case study any more" since it becomes a statement of it's own and there can be situations where there are more people involved!
But good job with the reflection! I found the table we were supposed to use for analyzing the case study was difficult to use as well.
Hello!
Nice reflection, I didn’t attend the same seminar so I liked the examples – I haven’t come across the same in other blogs so it was interesting.
I’m glad to read that you got better understanding of case studies during the seminar, I agree with you that case studies was the more interesting part of this theme since we’ve talked about qualitative research a lot.
I'm glad you found the seminar fruitful and that you think it's been a good theme that's been thought provoking! I like that you described your thoughts on the subject and how they changed during the week, that you connected pre-seminar and post-seminar. You had a different approach from having read the media management course, which was interesting to me since I'll read that course later on as well and come across the same concepts there.
I like the example you used and you described it properly. Good job!
Hello!
Good job with the reflection. I agree that it's more difficult to handle data when doing qualitative research, and wrote about it as well. I often find that you handle the data in a quantitative way even if the research is qualitative, just to be able to handle it and make some sort of generalisations.
In a case study, you can use both qualitative and quantitative methods. A nice thing about it is that you can choose along the way, since you can't really predict what will happen during the research process.
Hello!
I think you did a nice reflection, it would have been good to explain the example with the man and the head injury though - I didn't attend the seminar so I wouldn't have understood at all what you ment if I hadn't read about it in other blogs!
It seems like you've understood the theme and concept of case studies, and drawn the same conclusions as the rest of us. I like that you wrote about how it can be a start to a big study. I also liked your ending and agree that it was a nice way to end the course.
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