To understand current or historical events, conditions or practices.Īccess manuscripts, documents or records from libraries, depositories or the internet. Join and participate in a community and record your observations and reflections. To study the culture of a community or organization first-hand. Measure or survey a sample without trying to affect them. To understand something in its natural setting. Verbally ask participants open-ended questions in individual interviews or focus group discussions. To gain an in-depth understanding of perceptions or opinions on a topic.
To understand the general characteristics or opinions of a group of people.ĭistribute a list of questions to a sample online, in person or over-the-phone. Manipulate variables and measure their effects on others.
Surveys, observations, archival research and secondary data collection can be quantitative or qualitative methods.Ĭarefully consider what method you will use to gather data that helps you directly answer your research questions. Interviews, focus groups, and ethnographies are qualitative methods. Experimental research is primarily a quantitative method. Step 2: Choose your data collection methodīased on the data you want to collect, decide which method is best suited for your research. You decide to use a mixed-methods approach to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Your second aim is to gather meaningful feedback from employees to explore new ideas for how managers can improve. Your first aim is to assess whether there are significant differences in perceptions of managers across different departments and office locations. Examples of quantitative and qualitative research aimsYou are researching employee perceptions of their direct managers in a large organization. If you have several aims, you can use a mixed methods approach that collects both types of data. If your aim is to explore ideas, understand experiences, or gain detailed insights into a specific context, collect qualitative data. If your aim is to test a hypothesis, measure something precisely, or gain large-scale statistical insights, collect quantitative data. 
Qualitative data is expressed in words and analyzed through interpretations and categorizations. Quantitative data is expressed in numbers and graphs and is analyzed through statistical methods. Depending on your research questions, you might need to collect quantitative or qualitative data: Next, formulate one or more research questions that precisely define what you want to find out. You can start by writing a problem statement: what is the practical or scientific issue that you want to address and why does it matter? Before you start the process of data collection, you need to identify exactly what you want to achieve.
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