March, 2015

Mar 30 2015

The reliability of qualitative research

Reliability is a concept that refers to producing consistent results time after time. If you commission a qualitative research or evaluation project, how can you be sure it is reliable? Don’t you need statistics to make research reliable? No. Because, although the term ‘reliability’ is usually applied as a concept for testing or evaluating quantitative […]

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Mar 23 2015

You’re being watched. Observation methods in social research and evaluation

Observation is a systematic process of recording the behavioural patterns of people, objects and occurrences without questioning or otherwise communicating with them. It’s a bit like professional stalking, but with ethical and design limitations. The technique can be used as a tool for scientific enquiry when it serves a specific research purpose, is planned and […]

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Mar 15 2015

Unwillingness to answer. 4 reasons why people refuse to respond

If you’ve ever used a survey in a research or evaluation project, you may have encountered unanswered questions by some respondents. Even if respondents are able to answer a particular question, they may be unwilling to do so. There are usually four key reasons why respondents sometimes don’t answer questions in surveys. 1. It’s too […]

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