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

Links to my comments on other students blogs:

1. cloudsong223
2. elindm2572
3. ixxzw
4. dm2572lisa
5. reb2572
6. u1ifqcuc
7. fromplatotocasestudies
8. tmmkappa
9. denise-theoryandmethod
10. remarkableathenianyouth

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

Links to my comments on other students blogs:

1. ixxzw
2. dm2572lisa
3. reb2572
4. elindm2572
5. u1ifqcuc
6. cloudsong223
7. fromplatotocasestudies
8. tmmkappa
9. denise-theoryandmethod
10. remarkableathenianyouth

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

Links to comments on other students blogs:

1. ixxzw
2. fromplatotocasestudies
3. dm2572lisa
4. dm2572rberggre
5. butlikewhyisit
6. reb2572
7. pargman420
8. elindm2572
9. u1ifqcuc
10. cloudsong223

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