In order to analyse my data, I have used transcription of both oral and written feedback, digital data sets from questionnaires with a thematic categorisation of responses. This data can be found in the following locations:
Written Short Questionnaire Responses
Digital Questionnaire Responses
Focus Group Feedback
I have also consulted the Discover Uni website for published findings from the NSS feedback and data, that has provided insight into final year and alumni perspectives on progression. This can be found here.
In receiving feedback from students through 2 different questionnaires, I have used a mixed methods technique in order to enrich my findings (Kara, 2015). For the first short questionnaire I transcribed written responses according to theme in order to categorise similar points within groups. This helped me to establish the main focus areas in response to the questions. The second questionnaire was made available digitally to students and the majority of responses were recorded quantitively. I thought it was important to offer a different type of questionnaire to appeal to students with greater digital literacy and give them a sense of more anonymity in that they could complete this remotely. It also gave students who may need translation software a chance to read the questions privately in a different language. This questionnaire also made use of content analysis, with the option for students to offer typed feedback. The digital form was able to highlight the frequency of repeated words which gave insight into the meaning of the responses. Combining both qualitative and quantitative aimed to ‘to address a research question from a variety of perspectives’ (Kara, 2015) resulting in a more comprehensive overview of the feedback.
Analysing the results from a focus group was a new experience for me and to record responses efficiently and accurately was quite a challenge. When holding the focus group I recorded the feedback using an audio recording device, so that I could return to check my written answers at the time matched up with genuine feedback. I organised the data by each question asked, and listed the answers that were provide by the group.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was hoping to embody the 5 benefits identified by Hess (1968), and I think elements of each one were present at times which I have identified here:
‘1. Synergism – this could be seen in the wider topics that were pulled in to discussion, and this raised further questions around the course.
2. Snowballing – students tended to gather momentum once one person had spoken up, which led to more issues being raised and greater insight.
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3. Stimulation – animated responses were noted in response to some questions, and this tended to be when negative issues were raised.
4. Security – the responses seemed honest and genuine, especially as at times the feedback addressed topics of a sensitive nature.
5. Spontaneity – different students spoke up at different times depending on the question
I noted that my focus group particpants (7 in total) presented as a small, familiar social group. Although there was a benefit to this in terms of Hess’ ‘security’ characteristic as there was an observed social ease, this sample of students could only represent a number of views on the questions being asked. In future, the sampling needs to bring in a more diverse range of participants in order to achieve a more accurate result. This is reflected in Parker and Tritter’s conclusion of ‘more critical attention paid to sampling issues and a greater consideration of the epistemological impact of focus group composition’ when discussing focus groups. (Parker & Tritter, 2006).
That said, there was spirited discussion around the topics mentioned and it is ‘this dynamic nature which is at the heart of focus groups and which endows them with the power to generate insight often negated by other methods’ (Parker & Tritter, 2006). Therefore I think the focus group was successful in generating lots of useful feedback, however it is limited by the narrow scope offered by the sampling.