A little more action (research) please!

I've been thinking about some of my learning experiences during the course, and I've picked out one of the most critical for getting my qualitative research project on the right tracks.

When I was devising my research questions, the original versions came out like this:

Primary research question:
"What effect does online interaction have on participants' approach to learning?"

Secondary research questions:

1. "How does online socialisation before a face-to-face training event affect interactions within that event?"
2. "How does online interaction before a face-to-face training event affect participants preparation for that event?"
3. "How does the opportunity for online interaction after a training event affect the application of that training in the workplace?"
4. "What would be the effect of allowing participants to contribute anonymous comments to online discourse?"

Fortunately I was reading through the advice given by Creswell (2009, Ch.7) on devising research questions for qualitative research, and I realised that my choice of words was completely inappropriate. Using the word 'affect' (or 'effect') naturally leads towards a more quantitative result because it is inherently directional for responses, as opposed to the exploratory nature of asking people to describe their experiences.

A secondary learning experience that is occurring even as I write this is revision of some of the points I had originally put into my wiki pages. I described my change in questions as being due to advice that Creswell gives specifically about action research, but I've actually misread something again - the advice was simply about qualitative versus quantitative. But I digress...

With a much clearer mind, I can re-define my overall goal for this research project as being to draw out participants' experiences of using online discussion alongside a face-to-face training event, without seeking to establish whether the effects are positive or negative through the questions themselves. So my revised set of research questions comes out as:

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

Secondary research questions:
1. "Describe your experience of socialising with other participants who you interacted with online before the training event"
2. "Describe your experience of preparing for a face-to-face event where online interaction was required, relative to an event with no prior interaction"
3. "Describe your experience of participating in online interactions around course related content after the face-to-face event"

I've deliberately left out the question of anonymity - not sure I want to open that can of worms right now!

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