Reference no: EM132614274

Discussion: Your initial discussion thread is due and you have to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses.

Research Design: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 8 and review Chapter 9 of the course text. Also, review the following resources:

Visual

• The Everyone Lives on Dollar Street video

• The Dollar Street webpage

Documentary

• Lewis Hine Photography

• The Teaching With Documents: Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor

Oral History

• The Story Corps web page

• The Oral History Project of the Vietnam Archive web page

This discussion supports your understanding and application of the quantitative method and qualitative method of research approach. In your initial post, address the following:

1. Differentiate between randomized and nonrandomized approaches to sampling populations. Discuss the importance of the role of sampling when conducting research.

• Snowball sampling is a form of sampling where participants recommend people they know as research participants. Explain one pro and one con to this approach.

• Discuss the usefulness of pretesting, pilot testing, or field-testing a survey or interview questionnaire.

• In some large-scale research projects the researcher is not always the one collecting data but is more heavily involved in the analysis and interpretation of the data. Would this create a challenge in a quantitative study where a survey was used for data collection? Would this scenario create a challenge in a qualitative study where a one-to one interview or focus group data collection method was used? Explain why or why not for both scenarios.

• As you experienced in the Week 3 assignment, qualitative methods research can encompass some interesting forms of research approach to help us understand the human experience in society, such as ethnography. In the resources this week we asked you to review three other forms of approach that help us understand in unique ways: visual, documentary, and oral history.

• After reviewing the resources provided, describe each form of approach. Explain their unique differences and similarities.

• What is gained by conveying human experience via visual or audio as opposed to a written interpretation?

• Which form of approach did you find the most compelling in sharing the experience of humans in society? Explain why.

• Do you think that these forms of visual and audio data evidence could be more powerful for influencing social change and public policy than written or statistical data? Explain your response.

Your initial post should be at least 800 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates' posts. In your responses, be sure to note any interesting aspects of their response, such as their view on the pros and cons of snowball sampling and their varied views on the visual, documentary and oral history forms of qualitative research. Your responses should be at least 200 words in length.