In this episode of Research Roundtable, my colleague Emily Namey joins me to talk about her co-authored paper that compares four different modes of qualitative data collection. The study compares in-person data collection to three modes of remote, online data collection – video, chat, and email or message board – and the costs associated with each. Emily and her colleagues conducted this study before the COVID-19 pandemic but their findings are relevant now that researchers struggle to adapt their data collection to the new normal. Do the different modes generate the same thematic content and volume of data? We discuss these results as well as the findings from the cost analysis. You may be surprised! Watch the episode to learn if one mode generates more data or costs less than other modes and how those results could be applied in low- and middle-income countries.
Emily also wrote two blog posts on the paper – one post summarizes the study findings and the other post describes her experiences testing each mode. Emily personally conducted all of the interviews and facilitated all of the focus groups.
Read the full research paper (2020), sponsored by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
