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Collecting Data Online

The necessity to answer provocative questions and solve important problems pushes researchers to be creative in their work. This creativity provides researchers with a substantial amount of freedom. The freedom may allow researchers to create well-designed projects that work efficiently within an uncertain or irrational environment in a manner that captures the essence of their questions or problems being solved. In this context, researchers use theory and methodological choices to develop an approach that can be applied in the research setting. While researchers are likely to spend a substantial amount of time justifying their theoretical choices, they are also likely to spend little time justifying their methodological choices. It is important that researchers keep in mind that paradigm and how the paradigm may inform or guide their approach. Traditionally, the paradigms that were often considered were quantitative or qualitative. With the advent and development of the Internet, researchers must consider whether their methodologies are Internet based or non-Internet based. Non-Internet-based research methods (e.g., those that use telephone, paper and pencil, or face-to-face interviews) have been the attention of scores of research methods texts. The recent development of the Internet has not afforded the same scores of research methods texts. The focus here is to provide a presentation of some of the uses of the Internet to collect data using quantitative or qualitative methods.

Quantitative Methods

Two predominate forms of quantitative methods appear in the literature concerning the use of the Internet. One form is a questionnaire. The availability of software designed to take questionnaires from paper to online formats are vast and relatively simple to use. The completion of questionnaires consists of radio buttons and scroll options that require the click of the mouse. The design of an online questionnaire follows the same conventions as designing a paper questionnaire. The computer programs that are available to present questionnaires to respondents also provide a means to summarize questionnaire results. This feature makes the process of questionnaires attractive for quantitative research. For the researcher, these features make online questionnaires attractive, convenient, and cost-effective. The same conveniences cannot be afforded to the respondents. For the respondent, the use of Internet questionnaires demands a substantial commitment from the respondent. The commitment consists of effort and time.

Qualitative Methods

Three forms of qualitative methods appear in the literature concerning the use of the Internet. The first form is focus groups. Focus groups consist of small groups of respondents, and they are facilitated by a moderator with the idea of discussing specific topics. Throughout the focus group, the moderator is to create a comfortable, familiar, and unthreatening space where the respondents are able to speak freely about the specific topic. Focus groups can be run online in a couple of ways—real time or at the convenience of the respondent. Real-time focus groups may be performed using chat facilities. One issue with chat facilities is that everyone might participate at the same time, creating a problem in managing the volume of information. When focus groups occur at the convenience of the respondents' forum, spaces or message boards are used, and allow the respondents to come in and out. This overcomes the issue of too much information, but this requires the respondents to be patient. Focus groups can, however, be successfully performed using online methods.

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