Moderating Focus Groups - Coursework Example

CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION 3 INTRODUCTION: This chapter entails aspects to do with data collection, data, presentation, and analysis. The main purpose of the chapter is to gather user requirements by using a questionnaire and conducting a focus group to evaluate existing apps and to assess the behavior of young adults with respect to the mobile application. A questionnaire is piloted to gain quick user feedback, from which a final questionnaire is created and distributed amongst the participants. A focus group is then carried out to gain deeper insights from the questionnaire, and to allow the researcher to evaluate existing application (Greenbaum, 2000). Then the results from the theoretical user requirements with the practical user requirements are collated to gain a list of specific user requirements. 3.2 RECRUITING THE STUDENTS: A meeting was organized with the head of Villiers High School’s Sixth Form. A presentation of the data was initiated. In this case, a quick overview of the project was explained. Again, the involvement of each student was explained. After this was done, students received an email from their head to inform them of a study taking place. The email notification explains to the students how it would be a great opportunity for them to get involved, given the limited number of students required for the study (Babbie, 2010). The study only required twenty students to act as the respondents. Having received a high level of interest from the students, the head of Villiers High School 6th Form granted them permission. The project overview was structured to be presented at the sixth formers’ assembly on Monday, the 17th day of November 2012. Having been allowed to visit the school, there has been the case of walking in sessions. In this case, students have the freedom to ask the researcher any questions regarding their involvement. Visiting the students within their playground has also been a good way of gaining their participation interest. I could also gain their interests by visiting them in the classes and their scheduled walk. These scheduled walks are usually in sessions, which take place on Thursdays and Fridays, and specifically during lunchtime. In such cases, open discussions and one-to-one sessions about the project are conferred. From such efforts, it was possible to recruit up to 20 students from which I was able to start the project. A team of 20 students was perfect for the project. These 20 students were informed everything to do with their roles. They were issued with consent forms after which they were explained about their involvement rights. From this point, the project was ready to advance whereby enough respondents were available to respond to the questionnaire (Baretto, et al., 2003). 3.3 QUESTIONNAIRE A quantitative questionnaire is used to gather information concerning the eating habits of young adults. This kind of questionnaire would be used in order to establish the existing relationships among various variables, which could influence the eating habits among young adults. The use of questionnaire in gathering the required data was done due to a number of reasons. One of the many benefits of using a questionnaire is that the process of gathering the responses is done in a standardized manner making the questionnaire relatively more objective than other methods like interviews (Milne, 1999). Collecting the information is also relatively quick although it could take much time with some respondents. Given the large number of respondents, the use of questionnaires would be a good decision. The questionnaire is first piloted in order to eliminate the problem of standardization. Standardization in questionnaires makes it impossible to explain any misinterpreted points in the questions. The only major problem is that that the technique can only be applied after the events being sought in the research have happened. This is however common with most of the evaluation method. The pilot study will mainly eliminate the problems caused by the standardization aspect (Milne, 1999). 3.3.1 PILOT STUDY: A pilot study is mainly a small-scale study, which is preliminary and it is conducted for the evaluation of feasibility, cost, time, adverse events, as well as effect size. A pilot study in this case would be important in evaluating statistical variability as a way of trying to predict the appropriateness of the chosen sample size as well as trying to improve the study design before performing the main research project (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000). The pilot study will allow the possibility of avoiding the wasting of time and money. With respect to this case, time and money could be spent on a project that is inadequately designed. For the pilot study, 14 students were used. This happend because of the difficulties involved in wining as many respondents as possible. Again, it was good to choose a smaller sample than the sample size for the main research. In the pilot study, 14 students were asked to complete the questionnaire and provide feedback by providing answers to the questions of the questionnaire in the comment section. They were as well involved in a joint debriefing at the end of the questionnaire to discuss the feedback. Once the questionnaires were completed, they were sent back to the researcher and 15-minute joint debriefing takes place. In this case, the students discussed the interest in development questionnaires (Harding, 2013). The completion of the pilot study helped in amending the questionnaire so that it could avoid various problems, which could be faced in the actual study. This aspect also helped in improving the efficiency required in the actual study. In such a case, some of the questions we re-worded and some of the options were changed. Again, one the questions were removed because it was considered irrelevant for the main study (Teijlingen & Hundley, 2001). The results of the pilot study were mainly applied in making alterations as well as in developing the final questionnaire. The pilot questionnaire was almost similar to the real questionnaire (see appendix c). It provided the final solution into structuring the final questionnaire (Teijlingen & Hundley, 2001). 3.3.2 FINAL QUESTIONNAIRE The final questionnaire was structure purposely to assess the behaviour of young adults through finding out information about their eating habits. For the final questionnaire, 20 students were selected as the respondents. Each student received a questionnaire via email. In this case, the questionnaires were distributed via email. The results of the study were collected by analyzing the answers of the questionnaires as well as using graphs and small summaries to explain the outputs (Milne, 1999). RESULTS: Various ways could have been used to present the results, but tabulation was one of the best ways of presenting the data. The table below represents the results from the questionnaire: Table 1: Questionnaire results For analysis, table 1 could be simplified as follows: Question Results 1. What is your age? 2. What gender are you? Male Female 3. 9 11 4. How many meals do you have a day? 5. Do you have breakfast before going to sixth form? 6. What does your breakfast mostly consist of? Female = 7 choose Carbohydrate Female= 2 choose milk and dairy Female= 2 Fruit and Veg Male= 6 choose Carbohydrate Male= 3 choose milk and dairy 7. What does your lunch mostly consist of? Female = 4 choose Carbohydrate Female= 5 Protein Female= 1 Fruit and Veg Female= 1 Fatty Foods and Sugars Male= 2 choose Carbohydrate Male= 5 Protein Male = 2 Fatty Foods and Sugars 8. How often do you eat fruits? Female = 7 always Female = 2 sometimes Female= 2 Often Male= 6 Sometimes Male =2 Always Male = 1 Often 9. What do you drink with your meals? Female = 3 Water Female = 5 fizzy drinks Female= 3 Juices Male= 6 Sometimes Male = 2 Water Male = 1 Juices 10. What does your Dinner mostly consist of? 11. Do you calculate your calorie intake? If so, how often do you calculate your calorie intake? (Answer if application) Female = 7 Sometimes Female = 2 Always Female = 1 Never Female = 1 Often Male = 3 Sometimes Male = 1 Often Male = 5 Never 12. Do you consider yourself to have a balanced diet? Female = 7 Yes Female = 2 Sometimes Female = 2 No Male = 4 Yes Male = 3 Sometimes Male = 2 No 13. What influences your eating behaviour? 14. Do you know the consequences of unhealthy eating habits? Female = 11 Yes Male = 9 Yes 15. Do you know anything about the Food labelling System, if so do you ever read the labels on the item? Female = 5 Yes Female = 3 No Female = 3 N/A Male=4 YES Male = 3 No Male = 2 N/A 16. What sort of tool or technology would you use to browse for health and lifestyle related topics? From the table, every variable can be seen in terms of the way it influences the eating habits of young adults. The results are tabulated in a simpler manner as follows: Table 2: Tabulation of Questionnaire results Variables Male Female Age 16-18 6 7 19-20 3 4 20+ 0 0 Gender 9 11 Meals/Day 0-1 0 0 2 t0 3 2 6 4 to 5 6 5 6+ 1 0 Breakfast before going to 6th form Sometimes 3 6 often 0 1 always 1 0 Never 5 4 Breakfast constituent Carbohydrate 6 7 Milk & Diary 3 2 Fruits & Vegetables 0 2 Lunch Carbohydrate 2 4 Protein 0 5 Fruits & Vegetables 0 1 Fatty Foods & Sugar 0 1 Fruits Always 6 7 Sometimes 2 2 often 1 2 Drink Water 6 3 Fizzy 2 5 Juices 1 3 Dinner Carbohydrate 2 3 Protein 4 5 Fatty Foods & Sugar 2 2 Milk & Diary 1 1 Calculating Calories intake Sometimes 3 7 always 0 2 Never 5 1 often 1 1 Balanced Diet? Yes 4 7 Sometimes 3 2 No 2 2 Influence Cost 3 4 Availability 4 4 Food Labeling 0 2 Culture 1 0 Social factors 1 1 Quality 0 0 Other 0 0 Reading Labels Yes 4 5 no 3 3 N/A 2 3 Browsing Tool Mobile App 7 8 Websites 1 2 Magazines 1 1 Newspapers 0 0 Radio 0 0 Other 0 0 Having completed the questionnaire, and collected the results, it was easy to tabulate the results. This also helped in carrying out a focus group. A focus group involves a group of people who are asked to give their opinions, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs towards a concept or even a process among other aspects (Greenbaum, 2000). In this research, the focus group is important. 3.2 FOCUS GROUP: For the purpose of the study, a focus is important because it would extract the views and opinions of people about the entire process. This would be important for the study since significance of the study would be depicted from the people. People in the focus group would provide various opinions and views about the study. The focus group consist of 20 people, the same as in the questionnaire respondents. The same number of people in the focus group to those responding to the questionnaires would provide uniform results to the questionnaire results (Greenbaum, 2000). The focus group in this study took place at Villiers high school. The 20 students in this case are split up into groups of four. The students are then given an instructions pack (see APPENDIX D), which includes a cover letter of what the agenda is and how long each task should take. They are also given three tasks, which are broken down. The focus group is videotaped. In this case, an observer is present to take down notes that would later be useful in the analyses. The results in this case are collected using content analysis (Greenbaum, 2000). Audiotaping could as well be used, which is also done in the presence of the observer. 3.2.1 CONTENT ANALYSIS: Content analysis is a methodology used in studying communication contents. It is also the study of recorded human communications, which have been recorded. Such recorded communication could included books, video, audio, laws, or even paintings. Content analysis provides unaltered information. In this study, content analysis would be useful in making inferences concerning the antecedents of the study (Baretto, et al., 2003). It would be good in describing and making inferences about the study and any involved communication and its effects on the study results. The content analysis was carried out by establishing the purpose, element, and question concerning the various themes presented in the communication. The following aspects were established: 1. Food labelling Students felt that the aspect of food labelling is not important to them as much due to such confusing labelling and a lot of it being too complex to understand. After debating about it, students realised that, if there was a simple way to represent the labelling in food then it would be more beneficial for them to understand and be able use it and even persuade them. Going back to chapter 2 there was a theoretical user requirement found about how food labelling persuaded users to purchase food. Therefore using that as a basis and after further dilerbations, students felt it would be something to incorporate in the application. 2. Theme Participants mainly want a simple theme throughout the application. Some of them felt that having bright colours could enhance their interest. However, the majority felt that simplistic and consistent theme would keep the flow of the application better. 3. Simple Steps When discussing the functionality of the application, the participants felt that there were loads of applications that are quite confusing. These applications hardly direct the user, and they influence them in not using it. Therefore, the participants felt that including the incorporation of simple steps would keep them interested and give them guidance on what to do. 4. Scan/ search for products There was a debate on the way participants would search for a product. Many of them felt that searching for the product would be better as not all of products they buy have barcodes. However, some felt having the scan feature would look better and that it is easier to use given that they hardly have to type the product. At the end, they came to a joint decision of not to eliminate either because of the varied benefits. 5. Calorie Some students felt that knowing how much calories is in a product is important because it allows them to know how much they can have for the rest of the day (Google, 2014). Conversely, some felt that the labelling is so awful that sometimes they hardly bother with calories. Participants decided that if just a simple calories function, which was clear, would be included, and then maybe it would be beneficial to them. 6. Swaps Made Some students held that swaps were important given that the benefit depends on various factors. Almost all of them found that they could monitor the number of successful swaps they had made. This was found to be easy for most of the students. 7. Previous Swaps Almost all students found that if there was a list incorporated which has your swaps saved then it would be good to monitor how many successful swaps they have made and easier next time when trying to make a similar swap. Given these aspects, it was now possible to prepare the list of user requirements. 3.3 LIST OF USER REQUIREMENTS: REQUIREMENT 1 This involves the development of a mobile application REQUIREMENT 2 Every user had to choose one theme in terms of background and fond colour. REQUIREMENT 3 The swap button is a requirement and lets the user know the swaps made. REQUIREMENT 4 A record page involves a list of all swaps that a user has made. REQUIREMENT 5 This involves a button, which tells you how many calories have been saved. REQUIREMENT 6 This involves a traffic light food labelling display. REQUIREMENT 7 This include the information page, which involve how to use the application STEPS REQUIREMENT 8 This involves the scan and search feature where the user enters an item by barcode or search the item if it has no barcode. These eight requirements are critical for every user in order to be familiar with the system. All the steps need to be followed for the achievement of the anticipated results. 3.4 SUMMARY: Young adults are likely to be influenced differently in their dietary decisions. Other than the external factors, age and gender are key factors that can influence their eating habits. From the study results, Gender is found to be a major influencing factor. All the respondents are of the age ranging between 16 and 20 years of age, with 65% of them being within the age group of 16-18. The ratio of male to female participants was 9:11. Again, about 55% of the students were found to have 4-5 meals a day with most of these being males. In fact, 7/9 of the male students were found to have at least four meals a day. The females seems to be more cautious that the males in this case since only 5/11 girls were found to have at least four meals a day. On another aspect, more males than females took their breakfast before going to the sixth form. Concerning the constituents of meals, carbohydrates seemed to have the highest percentage in both breakfast and lunch. More females than males took fruits and protein foods, as well as fatty foods and sugar. In this case, females seem to prefer light meals to heavy meals as depicted by their choice of fruits and proteins. Concerning balanced diets, about 55% of the respondent ensured that they always eat balanced diet in all their meals; only 20% of then did not. Most of the respondents claimed that their choice of food is highly influenced by availability, cost, and food labelling respectively, with a respective order of 40%, 35%, and 10%. Culture and social factors only accounted for 5% and 10% respectively. At the same time, 45% of them claimed that they read labels before using food products. The rest did not do it or did not care about the existence of labels. In terms of the most applicable tool in gathering food details and health information, mobile applications had the highest score at 75%, websites 15%, and magazines 10%. None of the respondents made use of radio, newspapers, or any other information source for decision-making in their dietary needs or habits. Developing a mobile application tool would be important due to its use of persuasive design that would encourage all young adults in making healthier food alternatives. From this chapter, it can be concluded that the user requirements are successfully met. Bibliography Babbie, E. R., 2010. The Practice of Social Research. 12th ed. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning. Baretto, C., Fastovsky, D. & Sheehan, 2003. A Model for Integrating the Public into Scientific Research. Journal of Geoscience Education, 50(1), pp. 71-75. Google. 2014. FoodSwitch New Zealand. [image online] Available at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.bupa.foodswitch [Accessed: 19 Jan 2014]. Greenbaum, T., 2000. Moderating Focus Groups. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc. Haralambos, M. & Holborn, M., 2000. Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. Hammersmith, London: HarperCollins Publishers. Harding, J., 2013. Qualitative Data Analysis from Start to Finish. London: SAGE Publisher. Milne, J., 1999. Evaluation Cookbook: Questionnaires: Advantages and Disadvantages. [Online] Available at: http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/info_questionnaires/index.html [Accessed 27 January 2014]. Tashakkori, A. a. T. C., 1998. Mixed Methodology: Combining Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches. s.l.:Sage. Teijlingen, E. R. & Hundley, V., 2001. The importance of pilot studies. Social research UPDATE. s.l.:s.n. APPENDIX: APPENDIX A: INFORMATION SHEET APPENDIX B: CONSENT FORM APPENDIX C: PILOT QUESTIONNAIRE APPENDIX D: FINAL APPENDIX E: FOCUS GROUP INSTRUCTIONS PACK Read More