Final post

The course has now ended and I will reflect on the purpose of this course and what it has taught me about theory and method. during this course I had difficulties seeing how all the different themes were connected and interrelated with each other. I’ve gone back and read through all my previous postings and now at the end of the course I have been able to take a step back and start to reflect on how these different themes really goes together. The themes are connected and gives you a wider perspective on different methods on understanding, questioning and solving problems. Looking at all the courses as whole has gained me a clearer understanding and shows that themes are connected to each other and has given us new insight and knowledge on how to tackle different problems or questions.

Starting from the beginning of the course, one of the main central concept was a priori. Which explained how to obtain knowledge independently of experience. This has been a occasionally upcoming concept throughout the course and following themes. The first theme has been a good start to start reflecting about where knowledge derives from and how we obtain it. It made me open up my mind to new ways of thinking and questioning things in order to help see them from a different perspective. I felt that it was a good theme to start of with since it also made me connect more to a philosophical reasoning which is something that I have not done that much in my other courses. You need to be able to open your mind to new perspective in order to gain new knowledge and for this a more philosophical thinking is a perfect way to begin with. The first theme purpose was to reflect on why we perceive the world as we do and we learned this by reading about Kant and Plato’s text. Reflecting on why perceive the world as we do is a big topic and a well suited question to make us reflect upon greater things that may or may not have straight correct answers according to different perspectives and mentalities. Another thing about the first theme was due to the literature given to us to read was on a higher level than I am used to I had difficulties understanding everything as a whole and reflect upon it. This led to me extending my literature to new sources in order to gain a deeper understanding of some concept that were harder to grasp. Extending my sources and making my own source research early on in the course showed me that different explanations can be more helpful than limiting yourself to the course literature.

Theory and hypothesis was another concept during this course that felt was central. How a theory distinguish from hypothesis is important and was well explained in this course. A theory is something that is built on a hypothesis that can be tested and a hypothesis is something you can reason and argue about. The concepts were also mentioned and used in the others themes which made it good that we already had gained knowledge about them to be able to gain a deeper understanding about the other concepts in the other themes. One these concepts were case studies. Case studies was a relatively new concept to me and my understanding of it during the pre post was greatly enhanced after the theme which is shown in my post posting. Case studies are more efficiently when researching a rare and unexplored phenomena but less efficient when you are trying to prove a theory and test a hypothesis. My knowledge about hypothesis made me realize why a case study is more suitable for research within an unexplored field. The reason is that a hypothesis can not be made within this unexplored field since there is not enough knowledge about the field prior the case study to make a hypothesis since you can not reason around the phenomena that you still do not understand or know much about.

How or what method should be used is another main concept we have talked about in this course. The discussions on methods such as qualitative and quantitative research and research strategies has been a more practical learning than philosophical. By having read the literature and participated in seminars and lectures it was easier to understand how to find methods to solve problems by having multiple perspective. From having learned how to gain knowledge and what it is, the learning on how to take the data we already had a priori and find new knowledge was enhanced.

To sum it up, in order to find solutions to complex research question one must not depend on finding the answer but understanding the best way to solve it. In order to understand a problem you need to be able to define the problem through different perspectives giving you multiple new angles on the problem. And in order to define the problem you need to go all the way back to the first question what is knowledge and what is the aim of the study. As Haibo Li mentioned in a lecture you need to spend 90% of your time in defining the problem and the rest on solving it. By looking at a problem from multiple angles in a research the solution will be better and easier to find. When trying to solve complex research question methods can be combined gaining the research with greater and deeper knowledge. The important thing is to find the methods that complements each other and are useful. This is the main thing I have learned throughout this course and will have in use in the future.

Compiled comments

THEME 6

Hi,
I agree with you on case studies being efficient but not always! Case studies are for example efficient when researching a rare unexplored phenomena but less efficient when you are trying to to prove a theory or test a hypothesis. When you talk about questionnaires I believe you mean it being a quantitative method? Qualitative refers to methods where you can achieve a deeper and broader knowledge about the participants through for example interviews.
Nice conclusion at the end. You could also add that case studies also provides you with tools needed to further investigate and gain knowledge for further research within that field.
Good job!
http://cloudsong223.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6after.html?showComment=1445523029165

Hi,
well written and interesting reflection. I think you have amnaged to bring up the key points from this week. What makes your reflection most interesting is that you mention that the number of participants doesn't matter. I agree with you on that it is only the method that decides whether it was a quantitative or qualitative method. This was something new to me as well. But I feel that you did a good job explaining it. Just to add on your case study reflection the studies focuses on something specific and looks to find something that distinguish it. Would have been fun what it was that you did not understand from previous about case studies.
http://elindm2572.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6-reflections.html?showComment=1445873283280

Hi,
I experienced the same feelings towards this theme. Case studies was the hardest part to grasp for me as well. As I understood it a case study is not the same as a qualitative nor quantitative study. A case study is a research strategy rather than a research method. But it can use the research method such as qualitative when conducting the study to help gain knowledge about the field investigated or a theory that can lead to understanding if it's worth further investigation. Otherwise great job on writing your last theme reflection! Keep up the good job on the last post this week!
http://ixxzw.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6-after.html?showComment=1445874430689#c5097048230162115111

Hi!
thanks for sharing your interesting reflection. I totally agree on case studies being the hardest part to fully grasp. But you managed to point some good points. To add to that a case study is conducted to show if there is a possibility to see if there is more to investigate and gain knowledge on how to further develop your conducted research. You have a done a good job explaining qualitative studies in a easy way for me to understand and agree upon. Keep it up!
http://dm2572lisa.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6-reflection-post.html?showComment=1445874098136#c365077814472838227

Hi!
It's been interesting reading your reflection. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in a case study is something that was not discussed during our seminar. Very interesting to read about. I do believe that they are very useful toI would like to add that I don't believe it is comparable to a quantitative or qualitative method but more as a strategy approach for a research.
Keep it up!
http://reb2572.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/post-theme-6.html?showComment=1445873803601#c1059275852324900061

Hi! I feel that you have understood the last theme very well and made a good reflection. It's important as you say that a method does not define a case study. A case study is a research strategy where you can use the methods as a guidance and help during the investigation process. I really like your connection to 9/11 as a good example for a case study. To add to your thoughts on that, 9/11 was a rare attack and therefor something that is good to be investigated with a case study. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
http://u1ifqcuc.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6-qualitative-and-case-study.html?showComment=1445875692973#c8713761417034206531

Hi!
I like how you have divided your post into qualitative research and case studies, makes it really easy to follow your thoughts. Something I found to be interesting from our seminar is that case studies are not only used to develop new theories as you mentioned but also to gain knowledge about a field. This makes case studies a good tool to use if you would like to investigates something that you would like to more about since case studies are about investigating the full complexity of a field. When you say stand out, do you mean that you should choose a study about something that stands out or is rare? In that case I agree, but I'm not sure about the case study having to stand out.
http://fromplatotocasestudies.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6-reflections.html?showComment=1445875289238#c9192742748870439473

Hi,
I agree with you on missing the seminars since I felt that they gave me a better and deeper understanding of some hard concepts in previous themes. You have done a good job pointing out the main points from Haibo’s lecture, but I do feel you could have further elaborated on your own thoughts about it. I also felt that the bear example was a good one to make us understand that new perspectives brings out new solutions.

Sorry to hear that you missed the second lecture. What I felt where the main concepts was why prototypes are useful and that the research purpose is to gain knowledge, so it does not need to solve anything. He also mentioned that it is not a method that conduct something into a research, but the analysis.

Keep it up!
https://tmmkappa.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/theme-5-post-reflection-2/comment-page-1/#comment-27

Hi!
You have managed to write a great reflection really pointing out the key concepts and things about this theme. I like how you also manage to connect to previous themes and learning. It reminds me as well and helps connect a few things. It's really interesting that you explain Why a case study can not be based on a hypothesis being because it doesn't have enough knowledge about the field prior the case study to make a hypothesis. This was something I had not fully understood, I knew that they could not be based on hypothesis but not why. Thanks for sharing that.
http://denise-theoryandmethod.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/theme-6-qualitative-and-case-study_19.html?showComment=1445877309207#c3951740357053576657

Hi!
I can really relate to your thoughts on thinking that Ilias stating it is not the number of participants that defines a method being quantitative or qualitative, but rather how the research is conducted and by which methods. That helped me understand the difference better. We also had examples of when a research can be quantitative but yet only applied to only one participants. For example if one were to have a very rare decease. Just to add on your thoughts about case study, yes they are often used to create new theories but they don't necessary need to do this they can also only be about gaining new knowledge and opening up to further investigation. Keep up the good work for the last posting!!
http://remarkableathenianyouth.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/post-qualitative-research-or-its-all-in.html?showComment=1445876083172#c5062573903489078331

Theme 6 - Comments

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Post - Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

This week’s theme was about qualitative and case study research. The plan was to have a lecture and a seminar after the pre posting. Unfortunately the lecture was cancelled and we only had a seminar. I felt that this affected my learning for this theme because I could only base the seminar on what I had read for the pre post and my own interpretations. A lecture would have been good to clear up some of the concepts that were hard to grasp, such as case study.

During the seminar my group discussed both qualitative and case studies that we had read about for the pre post. We talked about our qualitative study papers first. Most of what was said felt as a repetition from the previous theme about quantitative research where there was a question about qualitative methods. I feel that it would have been better having quantitative and qualitative research as one theme instead of splitting them up like this. Because in order to talk about quantitative it’s easier to also discuss qualitative to understand what differs and defines them as separate research methods. I feel that I already explained qualitative studies in a previous theme and the main purpose of it is to achieve a deeper and broader understanding of something. One thing that was new was that the number of participant does not define it being quantitative or qualitative. It’s the content that matters.

We later on discussed what case study research is and took turns in telling each other about the case studies we chose to read for the pre post. We mostly talked on how our papers fulfilled the 8 steps recommended in the literature. I didn’t feel that the smaller group discussion was enlightening, most of us had only our pre posting to base our discussion on and it felt as I didn’t get a clearer idea on what exactly a case study is. Although after the smaller group discussions Ilias talked during the second part and answered to questions such as what a case study is and when it’s good to use one. This part of the seminar felt more rewarding to me. I understood that the main purpose of case studies is to create a theory or rather gain knowledge and not confirming a theory. For example it’s profitable to conduct case studies when you have a field that is unknown or poorly researched that you want to investigate. They allow you to dig deeper and create a theory on the field you are researching. Ilias brought up some good things that I felt helped me understand the concept better. He said that a case study focuses on something specific and investigates what makes it stand out and differ. He also mention it being a good method of investigating a field to see if it's worth to further investigate. For example if a group of people were suddenly turned into robots you could pick up one of them to base your case study on. The case study would then provide you the tools to see if there is more to investigate and gain knowledge on how to further develop your conducted research.

I felt that understanding exactly what case studies are was the hardest part during this theme, but I feel that I have better understanding from my first posting.

Comments - Theme 5

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Post: Theme 5 - Design research

This theme was quite different than the others. We only had lectures and no seminar. I felt that the lack of having a seminar will make this post different than my previous posts after the theme. I felt that after this theme, comparing to the previous themes, I only have my own reflection to base my knowledge and perception on. I think this have disadvantages since we did not get the chance to discuss our opinions with others therefore I’ll write this reflection mostly based on the lectures and some own thoughts. I do not feel that I have gained as much since this themes pre posting as I have on the first themes. I have also noticed them being less and less philosophical than the first themes.

Haibo Lee discussed the process from having an idea to developing a finished product. From his lecture the main point as I perceived was that the most important thing is to define a problem, after having done that finding a solution is the easy part. In fact he said you should put 90% effort into finding and defining the problem and the last 10% on coming up with a solution. He later on continued by talking about how you should reason when choosing, validating,evaluating and marketing your idea. I felt his guidelines were pretty straight forward and it wasn’t hard to grasp at all, mostly since it is not completely new information to me. Good lecture with good points and knowledge directly towards our engineering field.

In the other lecture with Anders Lundström he discussed the difference between two types of prototyping; industrial research prototyping and design research prototyping. I hard trouble grasping everything from Anders lecture, since it felt a bit unstructured. But what I did understand that I didn’t know earlier is that prototype itself does not have to be made in order to solve anything but they are also there to help gain knowledge. This is primarily applied to when using a design research.

I felt that a seminar for this theme would have been well needed. It would have been fun knowing how others perceived the lectures to be and the pre assignment, since I feel feelings could have differed which makes the discussion more interesting.  Overall I felt this theme to be very interesting since it can be related to our engineering field, and could very much be something that I might use in a work situation.

Theme 4 - Comments

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Pre - Theme 6: Qualitative and case study research

1. Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?
2. What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?
3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

I read the paper ““Maybe you don’t want to face it” – College students’ perspectives on cyberbullying” published in Computers in Human behavior (Impact factor: 2,69). The article aims to learn more about college students opinion on cyberbullying and how they are affected by it in social and learning environments. When collecting data the researchers used a qualitative method to gain a deeper understanding, which is also the methods biggest benefit, of the students definition of cyberbullying and to later on determine if they perceive cyberbullying to be an issue. They also chose this method because they felt that little research has been made on the subject by using qualitative methods.  

Six focus groups, of 6-10 participants per group, were conducted by the two researcher. Taking turns on one asking the questions and the other taking notes. To be able to conduct good interviews you need be experienced or educated researchers, in this case they both were experienced and felt that they were well enough qualified. Makes me wonder though, how are we to know for sure?

The participants were found through different methods, such as posters on billboards or informing younger students during class. Usually this is also a limitation when it comes to qualitative researches; it’s hard to find volunteering participants. In fact they got a total of 54 students, where all of the participants received course credits and a $25 gift card. This is something I see as a potential methodological problem. The participants may have participated for the wrong cause, and their level of activity during the focus groups may have been affected by the thought of being in it only for the money or course credits. Another limitations is that even if they got quite a few students all of them were from the same college which can not make their research generalizable to the general public.

I am also dubious on focus groups on a subject that can be sensitive is the best method. The students were all from the same school, only that can make a student not wanting to share sensitive personal opinions. I believe a combination of interviews one-on-one with half the students would have been a good complement to the focus groups. They could also have improved the unequal gender participation. 85% were females but the researcher did not distinct the males from the females in the results or conclusion.

Something I felt the researcher did very well that was new to me and I found to be smart was the way they analyzed the data collected. They decided to each go through all the transcriptions made by a hired third party independently. After this they met up and summarized their findings with each other. Later on they had a follow up focus group discuss their findings and see if they agreed or disagreed.

Source:

Golman, M. & Crosslin K. (2014). “Maybe you don’t want to face it” – College students’ perspectives on cyberbullying. Published in journal: Computers in Human Behavior. http://www.sciencedirect.com.focus.lib.kth.se/science/article/pii/S0747563214004476

1. Briefly explain to a first year university student what a case study is.
2. Use the "Process of Building Theory from Case Study Research" (Eisenhardt, summarized in Table 1) to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your selected paper.

1. A case study is an in-depth investigation of a subject that is used to look at individuals, groups or communities. The data is collected through different methods, such as interviews observations. Case studies are a form of qualitative descriptive researches. The goal of case studies is to understand the complexity of the case study in every way possible.

2. 

Paper: The social sharing of emotion (SSE) in online social networks: A case study in Live
Journal: Computers in human behavior

Strengths:

• Clear and well defined research questions in the beginning. This is something that is pointed out to be important by Eisenhardt because a good research focus helps the authors not to loose the main theme and start collecting unnecessary and confusing data.  
• More than one person did the research in this case study. This increases the chances of getting a better perspective on things and possibly new ideas and insights on the study.
• They used different tools when collecting data which is also something preferable and strengthening for case studies.  

Weaknesses:

• According to Eisenhardt a good case study is built on 4 to 10 cases. This study had 3 cases which affects the complexity of the study.

Source:

• C.T. Rodríguez Hidalgo, 
• E.S.H. Tan, 
• P.W.J. Verlegh. (2015). 
The social sharing of emotion (SSE) in online social networks: A case study in Live. http://www.sciencedirect.com.focus.lib.kth.se/science/article/pii/S0747563215003726

Post - Theme 4: Quantitative research

The reading material for this theme was easy to read. Us being able to choose one of the papers on our own made a big different. I chose a paper that was interesting to read which made it more easy to understand and analyze. The paper by Ilias and colleagues was also easy to read and a good example of quantitative research.

Regarding the assignment for the pre post I felt that it could have been better organized. By starting with the first question you basically analyze the chosen paper with the knowledge that you already had from before. But if the assignment would have been to first reflect on advantages and disadvantages of quantitative methods I believe it would have given many better tools to reflect on the papers research methods. My advantage on this assignment was having done my bachelor thesis where we read a lot about different methods and how to analyze them and avoid common mistakes. I think that those who haven’t had any experience at all with quantitative and qualitative methods maybe would have gained by answering the latter questions first.

As said, I was already familiar with quantitative and qualitative methods so the pre assignment didn’t give me anything. During the seminar my group discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods. We agreed on the difference between them and it felt that we all had grasped the concepts pretty well. A qualitative method is used to achieve a deeper and broader understanding of something. The method could use methods such as conducting interviews with smaller groups. The goal is to understand and develop the knowledge towards the area. Qualitative methods provides the researcher a good opportunity to discover new areas they didn’t know existed. An example is by having an interview with open questions that may lead to the participant mentioning something that wasn’t even taken into consideration during the research. This type of method is more flexible. On the other hand quantitative methods are about numbers, statistic, large amount of data. We also discussed scenarios where these two are most efficient when combined. I brought up a scenario where you are researching an application. The app has a button and a swipe function for the exact same action and the researcher wants to investigate this. The researcher could then use a quantitative method to ask through e.g. a questionnaire how many that use the button function versus the swipe function. This would show which function that is the most popular. To further investigate the researcher would need to use a qualitative method to ask the users questions such as, "Why they prefer a certain type of function?", "What is the reason to one function being more popular than the other?".

Another thing that I found to be interesting during the seminar was the discussion if quantitative or qualitative methods could ever be objective or more objective than the other. The answer was that everything has an impact. Things such as the researcher's location, knowledge, choice of method, or formulation of questions to participants. Everything has been decided by the researcher and affected by something, therefor complete objectivity can never be achieved.

Theme 3 - Comments

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Pre Theme 5 - Design Research - Part 2

PART II

1. What is the 'empirical data' in these two papers?

Finding design qualities in a tangible programming space - Fernaeus & Tholander: Data collected from observing the children’s actions when using the prototype.  

Differentiated Driving Range - Lundström: Uses multiple methods such as conducting an state of the art analysis in the beginning, interviewing participants, analyzing blogs and forums.

2. Can practical design work in itself be considered a 'knowledge contribution'?

I think that practical design work can be considered as a knowledge contribution. The creators ideas are a part of the design and the design research could lead to further development through other researches. Making it a knowledge contribution.

3. Are there any differences in design intentions within a research project, compared to design in general?

When designing within a research project the method used is usually carefully chosen. Depending on the type of research you can also adapt your design intentions. It could be user centered meaning putting the user in focus when designing or self centered meaning putting yourself in the shoes of the user. I believe that this type of design and general design differ on this type of design being more focused on the functionality aspect of the design rather on mostly fulfilling a sensation as general design does.

4. Is research in tech domains such as these ever replicable? How may we account for aspects such as time/historical setting, skills of the designers, available tools, etc?

I believe it can be replicable. Although you have to take into account the researchers own knowledge on how a good objectified research is done. It also depends on the type of methods being used. I mean if the research is user centered then it can be replicable, but if the research is self centered that is not possible. And I believe this leads to further development of the tech domain.

5. Are there any important differences with design driven research compared to other research practices?

The design driven research is qualitative. It provides options of conducting the research through observations providing a deeper understanding and more accurate conclusions. This research also strives to make products as good as they could possibly be and focus is more on the functionality and testing. Meanwhile other research practice feels more about contributing with knowledge and information.

SOURCES:

Fernaeus, Y. & Tholander, J. (2006). Finding design qualities in a tangible programming space - Fernaeus & Tholander. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University.

Lundström, A. (2014). Differentiated Driving Range - Lundström. Media Technology and Interaction Design. KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Pre Theme 5 - Design research - Part 1

PART I

1. How can media technologies be evaluated?

Media technology can be evaluated in different ways. I think that it’s important to take into account the type and purpose of the technology that you are going to evaluate. In the article by Réhman, Sun, Liu and Li they had a prototype which they evaluated through having user tests. They also focused on other aspects by having three keywords as a point of view; effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. It's a good way to evaluate media technologies, since the artifact rarely affects only one aspect of the user.

2. What role will prototypes play in research?

Prototypes have a big role in researches on new or developed media technologies. Prototypes have the advantages of giving the designer and developer a chance to try if their ideas are understood by the future users. It gives possibilities of detecting new errors or misinterpretations that can be later on fixed and prevented having in the final product. Prototypes could also open up to new idea. Sometimes products with an initial purpose could suddenly show that it can also have a new purpose for a user that wasn’t taken under consideration when designing.

3. Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

Proof of concept is a demonstration through documented evidence to show that a potential product can be successful. This concept helps the developer to minimize the potential errors in the final product and lead to a difference maker for success or failure.

4. What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?

Prototypes are samples of the final product, it’s not finished and can differ from the final product. Its characteristics are to give the users an idea of what it could be and how it could work to be able to try the product and evaluate it before final production. When making a prototype there are limitations such as expenses for materials or workers and time limits. In prototypes alternative materials can be used to lower expenses and when working on projects you often have time limits and can’t do everything you would like to make it perfect. This could affect users when testing the prototype and create limitations on their experience of the potential product.

5. How can design research be communicated/presented?

Design research can be presented by having data collected through e.g. questionnaires or interviews that are later on analyzed and summarized. You could also add visual explanations, such as images or videos, helping the readers understand. These types of methods can be very useful.

SOURCES: 
Réhman, S., Sun, J., Liu, L., & Li, H. (2008). Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10(6), 1022-1033

Theme 2 - Comments on other students blogs

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Post Theme 3: Research and theory

The literature we had to read for these theme differed from the previous texts. I felt that these texts were much easier to understand because they were more based on facts than philosophical thoughts and reasoning. This gave me much more time on actually thinking about what I had read and the questions I had to answers.

The lecture with Leif D. started out good, with a clear definition of theory.

“A theory is a set of propositions that aims to identify (abstract) objects and their relation to each other.” -Leif Dahlberg

Especially this sentence confirmed my understanding of what theory is. I also felt that my understanding prior the lecture was confirmed during the lecture. One thing I didn’t really understand was the point of the question “What is man?”. We all gave a lot of answers to the question, such as culture, body, consciousness, feelings, and so on that we put up on the whiteboard. But I did not understand the purpose or felt that it was explained by the lecturer with a conclusion. Maybe it was just a way of making us give a set of propositions?

During the seminar my group discussed our chosen papers as a starter. It seemed that no one had difficulties understanding the task and questions. Most of us also felt that it was easier describing theory by what it is not rather than what it is. We agreed on everything and I felt that it was because of the texts being pretty straightforward that there were not that much room for open interpretations from these texts. One thing my group brought up, that I found to be interesting, was that the authors contradicted each other on one statement. In the text “What theory is not”, Sutton and Staw states:

“Diagrams or figures can be a valuable part of a research paper but also, by themselves, rarely constitute theory”

Meanwhile Gregor points out one of the categories of theory being Analysis. He explains it as a category analyzing what is. This theory analyzes data and diagrams which contradicts Sutton and Staws statement.  

Another debate during the seminar was what hypothesis is and how it differs from a theory. I felt that this discussion gave me a better explanation on what a hypothesis is. A hypothesis must be something you can reason around and argue about, if you can not do that then it is not a hypothesis. And a theory is built on a hypothesis that can be tested.

This theme was fun to read about, especially since I could relate to the keywords after having done my bachelor thesis. The assignment, lecture and seminar were mostly straightforward in my opinion.

Pre Theme 4: Quantitative research

1. Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?
2. What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?
3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?

I have chosen the article “A comparison study of user behavior on Facebook and Gmail” published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior with a impact factor of 2,694.

The article’s main focus is to investigate if and how Social Network Sites, SNS, and email activities are correlated. They limited the Social Network Sites to Facebook and the web-based email service to Gmail. Instead of only using surveys they decided to collect data about usage from the participants Facebook and Gmail account. This is a new method to me, I had never heard about an interface collecting data from a third party and making it accessable to the researcher. They managed to recruit 1015 participants living in the US. Each participant had to first answer an online survey with questions about their demographic and psychological information. Then the participants had to use a interface retrieving data from their Facebook and Gmail accounts. All participants had to participate only once. This a quantitative method of collecting data. The benefits to using a quantitative method like this is that you can quickly retrieve a lot of data and increase the potential of finding commune statistic. It shows a descriptive summarization of usage in this case. Although a limitation to this method is that we can not investigate the descriptive data further and getting answers on users own interpretations. In the paper they mention that this method can help reduce the amount of people being bias which is easily happened when using surveys. This was something I had not thought about before and agree with. As I agree I still feel that this method had some weakness affecting the result. The participant knew about the OAuth collecting their usage data since they had to create their own accounts and this could have affected the collection of data. But I think that they considered this being a fault and tried to minimize their data being wrong by comparing their data with comparing their results from the surveys to studies made before. It could have been prevented by not telling the participant that it was a SNS and a email service they were going to investigate. Also the number of participants is to little comparing to the total amount of Facebook and Gmail users, therefore it is hard to make a general assumption of all users by this data. This could have been prevented by limiting their field to maybe only one country.

1. Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?

Benefits of quantitative methods are:

• Easy and fast data collection.
• Being a numerical type of research it gives the benefits of being objective and not subjective when analyzing the data. 
• This method can provide statistics making the analysis of big amount of data easier.
• Possibility of being anonymous.

Limitations of quantitative methods are:

• Requires huge amount of data which also requires many participants. Finding enough participants can be problematic.
• Well thought and formed questions so it leaves no room for misinterpretation since the researcher have no possibility to clarify anything after for example the questionaries has been sent out.
• Expenses from surveys and limitations of distributing all papers. Could lead to limiting the distribution through online services.
• Participants being potential bias.

2. Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?

Benefits of qualitative methods are:

• Investigate deeper and more detailed in topics. Could also lead to new questions depending on the type of qualitative method where the participants or researcher is able to ask leading questions.
• Less number of participants, makes it also easier to find people. 
• The method is flexible since you can change and adapt to new information found through for example open interviews.
• Can give qualitative data about peoples interpretations and experiences.

Limitations of qualitative methods are:

• Can not make general assumption of a population or broader amount of people.
• Much depends on the researcher that is collecting the data. The person has to be careful on how it acts and phrases the questions. The researcher has to be able to be objective all the time.
• Participants willing to be anonymous can cause problems.