Friday 3rd November
Data collection
I have never done anything like this before, so I decided to use it as an opportunity to experiment. I knew that I wanted to speak to both staff and students to gain different viewpoints. I planned to collate my data using a variety of resources, to see what the difference was and if some methods would prove to be more successful than others. I therefore decided to use mixed methods to conduct my research.
Initially I tried to think of ways to collate my data efficiently. I asked my course leader if I could conduct my student facing workshops during the break of a session when I knew that they would be in college, with the hope that this would mean attendance would be good – this worked well. It meant I didn’t have to ask students to attend outside their usual timetable or have the difficulty of finding and booking a room to conduct my experiments, which I had seen other members of staff in my team struggle with. I created two workshops for my student facing investigations – the first used arts-based methods and a questionnaire, The students were asked a few questions about the workshop ‘Analogue Tuesday’ that they had attended in year two, they were then asked to draw what they had made and write about what the felt during that experience. For the second student workshop I had six participants. I conducted an informal discussion via the focus group using ten prompt questions I had written to help guide the conversation. I recorded this dialogue on my both my iPhone and used the microphone feature in Microsoft Word, which gave me a typed document I could amend to correct grammar and spelling, to then use as the data to analyse for my research.
Workshop 1
I started by inviting 8 participants (who were all students on GB&I) to answer 5 questions and create visual responses by drawing their answers to a question I asked.
I provided A3 paper and a thank you bar of chocolate to each, along with pens for them to use. I asked the following questions.
- Did you participate in ‘Analogue Tuesday’ workshop in year 2?
- How did you find it?
- Can you draw what you made on the paper provided?
- How did the experience of making something physical (an object) feel?
- What question could you pose to yourself about sustainability & design?
Workshop 2
I created an informal setting with my 6 participants and myself sitting on 2 sofas in our GB&I studio space. I handed out chocolates while we talked. I used the same set of questions I posed to staff to guide the conversation and help gain responses that I could use for my data to analyse. See below for a selection of the questions I posed.
To get feedback from staff I sent out questionnaires with the hope that I would get written feedback to the questions I posed, which would save me the time it would take to type all of the documents up. This did not work – I only had one response for the four I sent, a 25% success rate and on seeing the feedback I received, I realised that this method would not work. In reality I needed to spend time with the participant, talk to them, get them to relax and feel comfortable to share their thoughts, discuss and exchange ideas to get the data I was looking for. I then opted to create semi structured interviews – these were informal conversations where I had ten questions to help guide the conversation with themes we could discuss more generally. I conducted two interviews and in the end I received two questionnaire responses. These were more formal in their content, but it was interesting to have this mix of qualitative research to investigate and dissect.
Interviews & Questionnaires
Staff questions posed included.
- What do you think are the 3 most important things as arts practitioners, we should know about sustainability?
- How do you think reusing resources can aid creativity?
- Is it important to ‘make’ away from the digital experience?
- Can you say something about the importance of ‘play’ as part of the design process?
- How can design benefit people and communities by limiting its environmental impact?
- Can graphic design connect humans and particularly future generations to the natural world?
In conclusion I conducted mixed method research, which included;
- 2 staff questionnaire responses
- 2 staff semi structured interviews
- 1 student workshop with 8 participants completing a questionnaire and arts-based drawing experience
- I student workshop with 6 participants focus group with a semi structured discussion
- 1 student questionnaire response
On reflection, where I put in the most effort, organising the interviews and group discussions, with planned questions to ask, within a set time frame. I received the most useful responses, full of brilliant and interesting points that I could then use to analyse. However, I feel that the initial drawing exercise and getting the student participants to relax, helped with the second focus group activity. With the staff, my first interviewee encouraged my second as he had initially felt overwhelmed by the questionnaire I had sent and again, the informal meeting where we could talk to each other, helped him to relax into the process and formulate his points for discussion and dialogue. My research and methods explored proved to be an interesting experience, with the opportunity to try things out and learn what was more successful. All of the in person, informal conversations gave the most useful, content heavy data for me to analyse.