Open-ended prompts as game changers: Shifting a primarily quantitative study to a primarily qualitative study
Location
1047
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
Research can shape the dialogue of a topic. However, if researchers ask the wrong questions, they will receive limited answers. Qualitative research can assist in identifying these errors. My colleagues and I sought to investigate community college employees’ perceptions of external institutional assessment. To contextualize our research it is important to note that external assessment is often developed by individuals outside of the community college, and it is imposed with ties to funding and hierarchical judgments. My colleagues and I developed a survey containing close-ended questions, based on existing assessment measures, and open-ended prompts, aimed to identify problems with existing assessments and new methods of assessment. A total of 198 individuals completed our mixed methods survey, with 106 providing information in at least one of the open-ended prompts. While we believe our research findings are important, the primarily goal of this presentation is to evidence the need to include open-ended prompts within quantitative research. Therefore, on behalf of the research team, I will share our survey creation process and sample participant quotes to illustrate the imperative nature of qualitative work both to complement quantitative research and to expose its limitations.
Open-ended prompts as game changers: Shifting a primarily quantitative study to a primarily qualitative study
1047
Research can shape the dialogue of a topic. However, if researchers ask the wrong questions, they will receive limited answers. Qualitative research can assist in identifying these errors. My colleagues and I sought to investigate community college employees’ perceptions of external institutional assessment. To contextualize our research it is important to note that external assessment is often developed by individuals outside of the community college, and it is imposed with ties to funding and hierarchical judgments. My colleagues and I developed a survey containing close-ended questions, based on existing assessment measures, and open-ended prompts, aimed to identify problems with existing assessments and new methods of assessment. A total of 198 individuals completed our mixed methods survey, with 106 providing information in at least one of the open-ended prompts. While we believe our research findings are important, the primarily goal of this presentation is to evidence the need to include open-ended prompts within quantitative research. Therefore, on behalf of the research team, I will share our survey creation process and sample participant quotes to illustrate the imperative nature of qualitative work both to complement quantitative research and to expose its limitations.
Comments
Breakout Session C