Question- Topic 5 DQ 1
A doctoral learner has decided to do a case study for his/her proposed dissertation research study topic because it is believed to be the best approach to address the research questions. The researcher's choices of data sources for this particular study are to conduct interviews, to conduct observations, and to conduct focus groups. Will these data sources generate the breadth and depth of the data necessary for this design? Why or why not? What challenges might the researcher encounter in collecting data from these sources? Explain.
Student 1 – Heather R.
Conducting interviews, observations, and focus groups as data collection methods meets the requirement of using three or more data sources to answer the research questions of a descriptive case study. Both interviews and focus groups generate rich descriptive data that can yield in-depth analysis during triangulation, a technique used for checking and comparing the collected data (Forrest- Lawrence, 2019). When interviews and observations are used as data sources in a qualitative case study design, they add depth and breadth to the study and help get the most complete answer to the research question.
Researchers may have trouble with interviews and focus groups if they don't have the skills to ask open-ended questions and dig deeper, or if they don't know enough about the participants' cultures to understand what they're doing when they conduct observations. According to Schoch (2020), this requires the implementation of protocols that are important for ensuring uniformity between interviews or for ensuring that interviewers know what they are looking for when conducting observations.
References
Forrest-Lawrence, P. (2019). Case study research. In (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in health social sciences (pp. 317–331). Springer Singapore.
Schoch, K. (2020). Case study research. Research design and methods: An applied guide for the scholar-practitioner, 245-258.
Student 2 – JuanG
A researcher’s mission in a case study design is to pursue solid data collection illustrating his/her proposed study topic phenomenon.
Moving into the data collection for case study Nilmanat (2021) suggests a researcher conducts certain surveys, observation, and focus groups, and where each type of source allows a researcher to build data giving a distinction between the weakness and strengths of a case study. Enhancing a case study can be done by generating a foundation to portray adequate description of methodology by assessing specific criteria within the frameworks from a perspective of existing problems and current practices of related parties (Alma, 2021). Equally important to case study data collection is challenges. Challenges regarding specific criteria list by Nilmanat (2021) concludes a case study data collection as being time consuming since the data could be expansive and a need to develop volumes of data, as well as inconsistencies between the methodology, design, and theoretical approaches (Nilmanat, 2021).
Alam, Md. Kausar (2021). "A systematic qualitative case study: questions, data collection, NVivo analysis and saturation". Qualitative research in organizations and management (1746-5648), 16 (1), 1.
Nilmanat, K., & Kurniawan, T. (2021). The Quest in Case Study Research. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 25(1), 1–6.
Student 3- Fanny
Good day,
A case study basis for a dissertation that is qualitative may have different ways of reviewing, identifying or flow of process, however for this researchers’ choices of data sources for this study are to conduct interviews, to conduct observations, and to conduct focus groups may be effective. The usefulness of a case study can be successful if this project employs areas of detail within the scope information being collected, such as an online questionnaire, participant observation of key research planning meetings, semi-structured interviews with staff involved in research, and document analysis of emails and official national and trust communications (Rachel Faulkner-Gurstein, 2022).
Some fundamental challenges that the researcher may encounter in collecting data from these sources can be the depth of detail and the richness in the information gathered (Zakaria, Grant, & Luff, 2021). Because of the research itself, case study is usually employed when you need to answer for the why and how of the problem and variables of detail or design cannot be manipulated in your review of information (Farquhar, 2020). The focus of the research can change based on the direction the researcher takes in the pre mentioned approaches however the researcher is seeking to explore the context or analyze the findings then the case study can be successful with the methods used for the dissertation (Farquhar, 2020). Thank you.
References
Farquhar, J. M. (2020). Triangulation in industrial qualitative case study research: Widening the scope. Industrial Marketing Management, 87, 160–170.
