NSCI 301: March 16 Pt. 1

quantitative approaches

numerical data and statistics to identify patterns, make predictions, and generalize results to a larger population

qualitative approaches

non-numerical, descriptive data to understand human behavior, culture, and personal values

active data capture

directly interacting w people

active: questionnaires (surveys)

• rapid, quick to complete

• broad reaching (distribution, big audience)

• limited richness (not much detail abt individual)

active: interviews (1 on 1)

• in depth, rich data

• resource intense

  • record audio, takes long time

  • lots of data

active: focus groups (group interview)

• have script too

• group dynamics

  • diffuses severity of topic

  • bounce off each other

  • richness in data

• cons

  • cant represent everyone equally

  • bias ecah other

  • loud/quiet people

active: events (i-clicker or polls)

• engagement

• lack rigor

  • limited view on topic, dont know much abt the participants

passive data capture

without directly asking people

passive: internal comms

• examples

  • hospital memos, hiring package, health records

  • insights into culture

  • limited patient voice

passive: databases

• large sets of data

• easy to access

• not aligned w research question (not ur own data, very general)

passive: observations

• ethnographic analysis, observation data

• rich data

• resource intense

passive: social media

• abundance of data

• challenging analysis (so many points of data too)

  • acquiring the data is tricky

surveys 1930-1960

• era of invention (door to door)

• sampling

• representation

• geographic areas

surveys 1960-1990

• era of expansion

• telephone

• reach goes up

• response rates go down

• inceitivizing

surveys 1990-today

• era of designed data

• decreased cost

• sampling challenges

• fraud responses

surveys method

• captures

  • public attitudes

  • factors in decision making

  • patient experience

surveys important questions

• who fills them out

• who should fill them out

• are surveys representative

• what makes a good survey

• pros/cons of survey as a method

• alternative methods

good survey rationale

• validated or custom

• try to improve past survey similar to yours

• pilot: run by ppl before

• buzzfeed: catchy, short, images

• order of questions/answers

• wording is very important

3 key aspects of a survey

• measures underlying concept

• doesnt measure other concepts

• means the same thing to all respondents

common problems w surveys

• high readability for ur audience

• double-barreled questions

• answers that dont match the questions

• incomplete answer scales