Module 3: Writing the Study Design Section



Module 5: Qualitative Module – Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to have you go through the exercise of coming up with a qualitative question and then superficially considering what methodology and methods are required to answer it.

Part 1.

Develop a qualitative research question on a topic that interests you. You can take the question that you would have developed in Module 1 and find a qualitative angle to it.

To develop a question, think about from what different angles the question could be asked and answered. For example, if you are interested in a child’s experience of some phenomenon, would you want to observe or talk to the children involved, their parents, teachers, playmates etc.? How would you go about getting access to the group of people you are interested in studying?

Remember that qualitative research is exploratory – you do not need a hypothesis. However, you do need to have a focus that will guide the development of a list of questions.

Examples:

• QUANT: In children with acute asthma, does Decadron give orally reduce the admission rate compared with placebo?

• QUAL: How do parents feel about giving their children steroid medications?

What is your question? For a proposed study, what is your objective?

Part 2.

Choose a methodology that will frame your approach to data collection and analysis.

Give an explanation why you chose this method over 2 other potential methods. Enter this information into the template listed below…

Part 3.

Choose the method(s) you would like to employ in data collection. Remember that multiple methods give an opportunity for triangulation of the data within analysis. Again enter this information into the template below….

Part 4.

For each method of data collection, prepare a guide.

For example if you are doing observation, list what locations you are going to observe and when, who will do the observation, how many episodes of observation (determined by…) or how long the observations will be. If you are using audiovisual data, how are you going to collect it? (e.g. have participants use cameras, take photographs yourself, collect existing photos from different sources)

Interview guides need to include open-ended questions with a logical flow of ideas. Remember to start with general questions and move into those that are more key to answering your research questions.

Part 5.

Write a paragraph describing how you are going to deal with confidentiality and any other ethical issues you think might arise within your study (e.g. is your population particularly disadvantaged? What ethical issues might come up when trying to access this population?) Enter the information into the template.

NB: You’ll only enter information into some of the subsections below – that’s OK, the idea is to get you writing structured documents.

Module 5: Qualitative Module – Research Proposal Template

Assignment: Complete the following subsections to describe the study design you will use to explore the questions you have raised. Use the Critical Appraisal worksheets as a checklist to help you decide what to cover. You are encouraged to include a flow diagram showing how your study would run.

Feel free to delete the comments listed at right. You can temporarily hide them by clicking the “View” menu and then the “Markup” submenu in most versions of Word.

Have your research preceptor review your document with you.

TITLE

ABSTRACT

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

AIM:

SPECIFIC GOALS

OBJECTIVES

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE

SIGNIFICANCE

LITERATURE

PRELIMINARY STUDIES?

METHODS

SETTING

STUDY DESIGN

SAMPLING PLAN

Population characteristics

Size of Sample

Inclusion/Exclusion criteria

When/where/how?

Recruitment procedures

DATA COLLECTION

Why this method?

Sample instrument questions?

Reliability and validity?

Monitoring quality?

DATA ANALYSIS

DATA INTERPRETATION

TIME TABLE

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND LIMITATIONS

KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION STRATEGY

FINDINGS

IMPLICATIONS

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

APPENDICES

DATA COLLECTION FORMS

CONSENT FORMS

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