The And Focus Group Moderator Essay

Focus groups provide a rich and detail source of information. The purpose is to discover how they feel about a product, concept, idea or organisation. The views of one person may become the stimulus for another’s ideas or may start a useful discussion. People tend to be encouraged to talk when they realise that others have similar experiences and attitudes.

A focus group can be defined as a group interview- centered on a specific topic and facilitated and co-ordinated by a moderator or facilitator- which seeks to generate primarily qualitative data, by capitalizing on the interaction that occurs within the group setting. The idea behind the focus group method is that group processes can help people to explore and clarify their views in ways that be less easily accessible in a one to one interview. While the focus group opens up exciting analytical possibilities, it also gives rise to a number of potentially problematic issues in this respect.

Facilitating focus groups, interviews, allowed us to strengthen our qualitative research skills. As an outsider, the qualitative process was the most enjoyable to me. I was able to learn their way of living, strengths and challenges of their community. The process of creating the pretest and posttest surveys collectively was a challenge, yet another beneficially learning experience. I realized effective surveys take time to develop and need to be reviewed by multiple people. Developing poorly constructed questionaries’ is highly possible if no one takes the time to actually

Focus groups can be an excellent way to collect data and be able to identify if the interventions have an effect on the clients (Stringer, 2007). I’m interested

Flexible and inexpensive, focus groups consist of six to ten participants (Hartman, 2004, p. 408). Additionally, a moderator guides the discussion among its panel members that allows researchers to observe real-time verbal responses and nonverbal cues (Hartman, 2004, p. 402; Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 160). Focus groups moderators also have the ability to introduce new ideas to gain a greater understanding of concerns from respondents (Hartman, 2004, p. 402). However, a concern with focus group is the lack of anonymity due to the face-to-face participation.

This article represents a focus group type of qualitative research. According to Qualitative Research Consultants Association (2015), in focus group qualitative research, a group of individuals who share a need, life circumstance, or habit relevant to the research issue(s) at hand are led in a discussion by a modulator. The focus group discussions often include between two to ten respondents, and are often held face to face. They can also be conducted remotely through videoconferencing, teleconferencing, or

In order to gather a lot of data, a focus group is recommended. According to Howitt D. (2013), an optimal focus group consists of six to ten participants (Howitt, 2013; Morgan, 1997). The fact that an experienced interviewer conducted the interview led to good control and desired data(Morgan, 1996). Furthermore, a thematic analysis provided a systematic overview of the results.

Each interview and focus group audio was transcribed within 24 hours by a research assistant. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical package for social science to analyze the data set collected from the

Bloor, Michael, Jane Frankland, Michelle Thomas, and Kate Robson. (2001). Focus Groups in Social Research.

The video if part four of a six part series published by the University of Derby, known as, Advanced Qualitative Methods, created to inform students of the advantages and drawbacks of conducting a focus group. The video features, Fiona Holland, Senior Lecturer Psychology, and James Elander, Head of Center for Psychological Research, both from the University of Derby, representing both the benefits and limitations of focus groups. The main benefits of focus groups are the amount of data collected at one time compared to an individual interview, and the ability to compare results from different demographic groups. The limitations

The researcher felt that was the nature of focus group but to a larger degree a behavior of human nature, especially in groups where the participants know each other and work together. Therefore to head off a loss of control of the groups the participants were asked to rate topics that were popular in similar focus groups (Levy, Mandell and Schultz 2009; Pellicano et al. 2014). The strategy was used to integrate the topics into the focus groups that participants

This was a qualitative research study that utilized focus groups as the sole means of data collection. We conducted two separate focus groups on separate days. Focus groups were most appropriate for this study because we were eliciting the opinions and perceptions of students who have completed the program. While conducting the focus groups, one researcher moderated, while the other took notes on key points in the discussion. Responses of the participants were electronically recorded and then analyzed to extract key themes and quotes.

Sponsors are usually allowed to observe the group in real time. This is done in order for the sponsor to gain their own insight from their observations. A moderator is normally in the focus group to introduce new topics or questions from the observers. This is something that is usually not seen in in-depth interviews, group interviews, or survey research (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). In the scenario, focus groups are mentioned as a data source, utilizing a semi-structured interview approach.

One of the factors to consider is to ensure that the people being involved in the focus group have a common background and that they have comparable experiences in terms of investment or money spending activities. This is very important since there should exist no conflict among the members in a focus group. The other factor to consider relates to the questions that the moderator needs to ask the focus group members. The questions must be formulated carefully prior to meeting the focus group. The moderator of focus group must have prepared the questions in advance by considering the background and the experiences that are common to the members in the focus group. This will help in getting the intended information which will be helpful in establishing relationships among the various variables. Further, the other factor

Carson et al (2001, p.114) refers to focus groups as “A research technique that collects data through group interaction on a topic or topics”. They also suggest that the central distinctive characteristic of focus groups is group interaction, which generates a mass of data, which would be