The document discusses research methods and data collection techniques. It describes different research designs including case studies, surveys, experiments, and other types. It then focuses on surveys, explaining what they are, that they collect quantitative data, and can be descriptive or explanatory. The document also discusses experiments, case studies, and other key elements of research design such as independent and dependent variables. It explores various data collection methods like interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and the advantages and disadvantages of different question types.

1. Research Methods
Sherzad Ali Ismael,
Community Medicine Dept,
College of Medicine.

2.  Be able to identify different types of research
design (methodology) & data collection
methods (research methods).
 Understand the advantages and
disadvantages of questionnaires as a data
collection method;
 Be able to design, conduct and administer a
questionnaire to answer research questions
and to meet objectives.
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3.  Case study
 Survey
 Experiment
 Other types:
 Action research.
 Grounded theory
 Ethnography
 Archival research
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4.  Case study:
 A type of research strategy that includes either a
single case (a case record) or a small number of
cases (case series) but each case is discussed in
details.
 The subject of the cases may be a person, an
organization, a situation or a country.
 Examples:
▪ Studying a case or a group of cases after Laser eye
surgery.
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5.  Survey:
 Refers to the collection of information from a group of
people belonging to a population of interest to make
assumptions about that population.
 The population of interest can be patients, learners
(students), researchers or colleagues.
 Can be descriptive or explanatory.
 Collect quantitative data that are analyzed
quantitatively using descriptive and inferential
statistics
 Use questionnaire or interview to obtain data.
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6.  Experiment:
 A research design that attempts to discover a
cause-effect relationship between two variables.
 Used in exploratory and explanatory research to
answer ‘what’ and ‘why’ questions.
 Has two main key elements:
▪ Experimental group.(Subjects exposed to the
experimental variable in an experiment)
▪ Control group. (Subjects not exposed to the
experimental variable in an experiment)
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7.  Population: an entire
body of people to
which the researcher
would like to
generalize research
findings.
 Samples: a segment of
the population.
 Number of individuals
(cases) are called
sample size.
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8.  Independent variable: a variable that brings
a bout change in another variable. (i.e. the
cause)
 Dependent variable: is the outcome of the
study that is changed by the independent
variable
 Intervening variable (Moderating variable):
a variable that may come between the
independent & dependent variable in an
experiment.
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10.  Example: Randomized controlled trial (clinical
trial)
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11.  Cross-section. (Collect data at a particular
time)
 often employ the survey methodology (Easterby-
Smith et al. 2008; Robson 2002)
 Longitudinal. (Collect data over time)
 study change and development (e.g. incidence).
Jan. 2012 Jun. 2012
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12. (Research Methods)
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13.  Primary data: data collected specifically for
the purpose of the researcher.
 Secondary data: Data have already been
collected for some purposes other that
researcher’s purpose, includes:
 Raw data,
 Compiled data (published summaries)
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14.  Interview
 Focus group
 Questionnaire
 Others
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15.  An interview is a purposeful discussion
between two or more people (Kahn and
Cannell 1957).
 Types:
 Structured interviews;
▪ Structured: the questions are the same for each
participant.
 Semi-structured interviews (Qualitative research
interview)
 Unstructured interview (in-depth interviews)
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18.  Focus groups may be called discussion groups
or group interviews.
 A number of people are asked to come to
gether. (6-8 persons/ group, 3-4 groups).
 The discussion is led by a moderator or
facilitator who:
 introduces the topic,
 asks specific questions,
 controls side discussions
 Focus groups may be video or audio-recorded
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19.  A set of questions which can be answered by
research participants.
 Tend to be used for descriptive or explanatory
research
 Some packages (e.g. Snap Surveys™, Sphinx
Development™ and SurveyMonkey.com™)
allow you both to design your
questionnaire, collect, enter and analyze the
data within the same software.
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21.  Open-ended:
 Closed ended,
 Combination of both
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22.  Open questions, used widely in in-depth and
semi-structured interviews
 Useful if you are unsure of the response, such
as in exploratory research, when you require
a detailed answer.
6. Please list up to three things you like about your study:
1………………………………………………………………
2………………………………………………………………
3. …………………………………………………………….
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23.  Provide a number of alternative answers from
which the respondent is instructed to choose.
 Follow a set format
 Used to generate statistics in quantitative
research
 Type of question is usually quicker and easier
to answer, as they require minimal writing
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24. 1. List questions offer the respondent a list of
responses, any of which they can choose
 The response categories you can use vary widely
and include ‘yes/no’, ‘agree/disagree’ and
‘applies/does not apply’ along with ‘don’t know’
or ‘not sure’.
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25. 2. Category questions are designed so that
each respondent’s answer can fit only one
category.
 Useful if you need to collect data about behavior
or attributes
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26. 3. A ranking question asks the respondent to
place things in rank order.
Please number each of the factors listed below in order of importance to
you in your choice of selection. Number the most important 1, the next 2
and so on. If a factor has no importance at all, please leave blank
Factor Importance
A [ ]
B [ ]
C [ ]
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27. 4. Rating questions are often used to collect
opinion data.
 Rating questions most frequently use the Likert-
style rating scale.
For the following statement please tick ✓ the box that matches your view
most closely.
Plagiarism is an intelligent theft Agree Don’t know Disagree
  
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28. 5. Quantity questions:
 The response to a quantity question is a
number, which gives the amount of a
characteristic.
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29.  They will need to be coded prior to entry if
planned to analyze the data.
 For quantity questions, actual numbers can
be used as codes. For other questions, you
will need to design a coding scheme.
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