Chapter 9
GENERATING DATA WITH
ENACTED METHODS
Janet Salmons, PhD
OBJECTIVES
After reading and reflecting on Chapter 9, you will be able to:
 Distinguish between types of enacted data collection.
 Analyze ways in which each type might be employed to achieve the
study purpose.
 Understand the role of the position and role of the researcher in planning
and conducting research with consenting participants.
 Consider how decisions made about the type of data collection relate to
other design decisions for the online study.
WHAT ARE ‘ENACTED’ METHODS?
 In ‘enacted’ methods, researchers construct a situation that
allows for data to emerge or be generated in response to various
kinds of verbal, written or visually communicated prompts or
tasks. Such situations are here referred to as research events.
An online environment, community, forum, virtual world or
game is selected or designed as the event setting.
 This kind of research is highly collaborative, and participants
may take roles as co-researchers who co-construct new
knowledge.
HOW IS DATA COLLECTED?
 Data may be captured or collected within the research settings, or external to the
setting in journals or forums established for this purpose. Visual, verbal, written,
and/or multimedia data can be collected from:
Recorded events
• Audio or video, logs or archives of events; posts or chats captured by
the software used for the research setting.
Journals or Diaries
• Participants’ reflections in the form of narratives, drawings or links to
online materials which they selected during the research event.
Researcher’s observations
Post-event questions
• Field notes, images or screenshots; collection of digital artifacts.
• Interviews or questionnaires conducted during or after the research
event.
TYPOLOGY OF ONLINE VISUAL METHODS
Use diverse
visual
approaches to
communicate,
elicit responses
and/or
collaborate with
participants.
Researchers can do
the following. . .
Transmit images
View images
Navigate visual
environments
Generate images
… to achieve these kinds
of research purposes
Visual communication
Visual
elicitation
Visual
collaboration
Researchers can do
the following …
Transmit images
Using interactive, mobile technologies
•
•
View images
Navigate visual
environments
Generate images
•
Send pictures, maps, media or links
in text message, email or post.
Use live webcam.
•
In web conference or
videoconferences.
Post in private forums or social
media.
•
Immerse in virtual worlds or games.
•
Draw or diagram using shared
whiteboards or applications.
TYPOLOGY OF ONLINE VISUAL
INTERVIEW METHODS
… to achieve these kinds
of research purposes
Visual
communication
Visual
elicitation
Visual
collaboration
•
•
•
•
Communicate complex concepts or relationships.
Show examples.
Prompt comparisons with participants’ experiences.
Catalyze discussion of alternatives.
• Annotate existing graphics or images.
• Create drawings or maps representing participants’
experiences.
PARTICIPATORY ONLINE RESEARCH
Participants take an active
role in some or all stages of
the process. Participants
may be involved with
research because they want
to understand critical issues
and problems and apply
findings in order to improve
personal, organizational or
community circumstances.
For example:
• Researchers and participants work on a project
together (creating an online site, webinar, newsletter,
discussion on social media) and study their own process
as well as the results.
• Participants use photovoice techniques to document
their experiences of a common issue, then reflect on,
share and discuss the pictures in a web conference.
• Participants explore a topic online, by saving and
sharing links, screen shots or visuals that represent
diverse perspectives.
• Your ideas?
NEW KINDS OF EXPERIMENTS
In the late 1990s, researchers began to imagine
ways to do field experiments online. They called
the electronic settings ‘Microworlds’:
Microworlds refer to dynamic computergenerated environments … that simulate
conditions encountered in the field … MWs
simulate an environment, and not the
behavioral phenomenon that occurs within
that environment, and are therefore distinct
from computer simulations that seek to
discover accurate mathematical models of
behavior. (DiFonzo et al., 1998, p. 278).
DiFonzo, N., Hantula, D. A. & Bordia, P. (1998) Microworlds for
experimental research: Having your (control and collection) cake, and
realism too. Behavior Research Methods, 30(2), 278–86.
How would they use today’s technologies?
• What kinds of research could be
conducted using qualitative online
experiments?
• What online environments could you use
for experiments?
• How would you organize the
environment?
• What data could you collect, how?
VIGNETTES AND ROLE PLAYS ONLINE
When thinking about doing role plays to explore problem
vignettes, how would the study be different depending on
your choices about the use of information and
communications technologies as the medium, setting or
phenomenon?
Medium: ICT allows researcher and participant to
communicate, taking roles within the vignette.
Setting: ICT is chosen because the features allow
the researcher and participant to see each other,
or to exchange digital artifacts in the role play.
Phenomenon: Researcher asks participant to
demonstrate the use of an ICT given the situation
discussed in the vignette.
THE FINAL WORD IN PREPARATION FOR
DATA COLLECTION: PRACTICE!
• Practice using different technologies as the setting for collaborative
interactions. Can you record the event? Do participants need to create
avatars or learn new tools to interact? How can you make it easy to
participate?
• Take a research question (from your own study or an article) and devise a
way to create an enacted event to answer it.
• Once you have decided on an approach, practice until you are confident.
COLLECTING DATA ONLINE & THE
QUALITATIVE eRESEARCH FRAMEWORK
While the researcher may be deeply
engaged with the activities associated
with data collection, it is important to
remember how this phase fits into the
overall inquiry.