Where, who, what, how and why?

Some questions based on Creswell (2009) and answers...

a) Where is the setting for your research project?

Multiple offices of an educational services provider in the United Kingdom.

b) Who are the people that you will study (or what is the thing that you will study)?

Company employees with responsibility for managing the performance of others, participating in a people management skills programme. Participants come from a range of departments.

I will be studying the experiences that participants have with online interactions which are required before and after the central face-to-face training event.

c) What methods do you plan to use to collect data?

Survey questions of participants...

Central question: How would participants describe their experiences of using online interactions to support a face-to-face training event?

• Describe your experience of socialising with other participants who you interacted with online before the training event
• Describe your experience of preparing for a face-to-face event where online interaction was required, relative to an event with no prior interaction
• Describe your experience of participating in online interactions around course related content after the face-to-face event

d) How will you analyse the data you collect?

Comparison of individual experiences of participants, with a view to emerging patterns

• Across all participants
• Within separate cohorts
• Experiences of socialisation activities
• Experiences of knowledge sharing activities

And my own question...

e) Why am I doing this (besides needing a project for assessment)?

Rapid change in all areas of business brings an increased demand for effective training of employees, with lower budgets and time scales than ever before. Face-to-face training, while still highly valued, is expensive in terms of removing employees from their regular work activities, and the cost for transport and accommodation. There is also a question of how effectively the content of a 'formal' learning intervention of this type can be effectively transferred back to the workplace. Online interactions are of interest as a means for extending and enhancing the learning experience for participants.

References:

• Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research Design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (3rd edition) Sage.