While being on University campus, I decided to interview two teachers to explore the research questions of my mini-thesis. I scheduled the interviews with each interview participant choosing the date and the place for the interview.
The main research questions of the mini-thesis are:
- What are the main benefits of online learning for students and teachers?
- What challenges do students and teachers face in online learning environment?
In view of above research questions, I used qualitative design in my study. My research is based on one-on-one, face-to-face interviews. According to Creswell (2002), interviews gives opportunity to hear the participants “… experiences unconstrained by any perspectives of the researcher or past research findings” (p. 240).
The use of the qualitative design allows me to obtain ideas and opinions of the interview participants to explore the central phenomenon of my study from the perspective of teachers themselves.
In my research, I used purposeful sampling. . As Creswell (2002) claims purposeful sampling provides an opportunity to choose individuals or sites that can “best help us understand the phenomenon” as well as such sampling contributes to “a detailed understanding”. To develop many perspectives in my study (Creswell, 2002), I used maximal variation sampling to understand better the benefits and challenges that teachers as students face.
One-on-one interview with open-ended questions was chosen as the main tool for data collection since it is considered one of the main means in qualitative research. As Creswell (2002) states one-on-one interviews are a good tool for interviewing participants who are open to speak and who can “share ideas clearly”. Although the researcher states that such interviews are “time-consuming and costly approach” they seem to provide an opportunity for the participants to reflect, analyze and delve into the issue of the research.
Later all the interviews will be transcribed and coded for further in-depth analysis. The next procedure will be identifying themes related to my research questions. It is of high probability that sub-themes might emerge as the data analysis continues since each participant will share his/her perceptions from various angles.
Creswell, John W. (2002) Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. Pearson.