Researching into focus groups has thrown up some important questions that I need to consider when planning my own…
- How many participants should I include?
- How do I go about choosing those participants?
- What questions do I ask in the focus group?
- What data do I want to get from the focus group?
- Are there any drawbacks or things to consider?
How many participants should I include?
Deciding how many people to include within the focus group was my first initial question. Hector Lanz’s video on focus groups recommends 6-10 participants that are usually specifically selected. Similarly Krueger and Casey suggest between 5-8 participants, as few as 4 but ‘when the group exceeds a dozen participants, there is a tendency for the group to fragment.’ (Krueger & Casey, 2014). The key thing is for there to be few enough participants for everyone to get chance to speak and share, but not so few that there aren’t enough varied viewpoints and opinions. With this in mind I will aim for the maximum of 12, but need to ensure that there is no less than 4. I’ll keep my options open!
How do I go about choosing those participants?
The next step to consider is who I approach to take part. While all of the students on the undergraduate course I teach need digital skills, at this point in the year, our YR1 students won’t have had any Illustrator sessions so this topic will be less relevant to them. YR2 students are perfect and probably the best students to focus on, as they have been introduced to the CAD CLUB resource already and all elements of digital submissions. FY students would also be good candidates for the focus group, however they have a hand in from November 13th – 20th, so if I want to include them I will need to be strategic around when I plan focus groups so it is not impacting them around a deadline.
Hanington & Martin (2012) describe focus groups as a ‘small group of well chosen people’, and that ‘the power of focus groups lies in the group dynamic that it creates. When properly recruited, and under the guidance of an experienced moderator, participants can quickly accept one another as peers.’ To support this further Kreuger & Casey (2014) state that ‘focus groups are composed of participants who are similar to each other in a way that is important to the researcher.’
There are two things I need to consider here. One, is that it is implied that the participants are ‘chosen’. I will be the person actively recruiting the participants to take part, I also teach these students so know them and their work, and I will also be running the focus group alone. So from an ethical point of view, I am conscious that by selecting students to take part my personal biases could affect who I approach. Will I try and get a mixture of who ‘I’ consider to be good/bad at digital work? If that is the case the data will already be very skewed based on my opinions.
The second thing to consider is that a dynamic will need to be created within the focus group to make the participants feel at ease, willing to share and feel that they are similar to one another. A barrier I can foresee here is that some students I know feel more comfortable/confident using digital software and others are less comfortable/confident using digital software. When it comes to opening up and sharing your opinion, being in a group of people that maybe feel comfortable using something you don’t, may make you feel less likely to speak up about your experiences. Or for that matter you might not be able to have conversations because you are raising different issues based on your experiences with the software.
I need to think about the people I ask and how they will work together, to ensure a good group dynamic and engagement. Do I spilt the groups into 2 focus groups? Of varying comfort using the software?
If everyone in the same group feels that they struggle with using illustrator – could this mitigate feelings of embarrassment as everybody is in the same position? Could this mean they ask similar questions or have similar suggestions to encourage group discussion? The same goes for those who feel confident (or at least more confident) using the software.
Perhaps when they agree to take part in the focus group, I could get them to self identify as either comfortable/confident or not comfortable/confident using the software? This then removes any biases I have as the decision is in their hands, and I can then allocate them to either of the groups.
What questions do I ask in the focus group?
My main objective from the focus group is to gain understanding of the student perspective. Their opinions, thoughts and suggestions.
In particular I want to find out the following:
- Their general feelings towards digital skills, the teaching, support and making of these documents.
- Their thoughts and opinions on CAD CLUB and it’s resources.
- Generating ideas for bridging the gap between teacher, student and CAD CLUB to increase engagement.
The below prompts will be a good starting point for me to start mapping out some questions and linking them to my project specifically.
What data do I want to get from the focus group?
Focus groups typically produce qualitative data through conversation and open ended questions, as well as activities that produce data that is more freely open to interpretation.
I want to speak to my students to hear about their experiences, and as many different experiences as possible. If I choose to do two focus groups and have 12 participants in each, that will only be 24 students. The whole course cohort is over 400 students, so I will only be getting a small pool of opinions. Hanington and Martin (2012) importantly state ‘results from focus groups should never be extrapolated for how the population in its entirety feels.’
While the focus groups can give insight to how some of the students feel about technical drawings, tech packs, range plans, illustrator and technical skills in general – I can’t take that as gospel for the full FDD cohort. Further quantitative data to support my findings from the focus groups will necessarily to get a broader understanding of how the student cohort feel. Perhaps a questionnaire or survey?
I can try and create my focus groups questions so it is a mix of open ended and closed questions, so that I have a mixture of qualitative data to analysis and answers I can convert into numerical quantitative data that will perhaps be more direct and easier to process.
Are there any drawbacks or things to consider?
A potential drawback is observer interference. Lanz’s video describes how the answers participants give are likely to be affected by the presence of the researcher (me), social pressure from the rest of the group particularly if some participants are more vocal and outspoken than others, or simply by just knowing that they are part of a focus group.
I will be asking questions about a resource that I have personally made, so participants may feel pressured to say that they enjoyed them or thought that they were good to spare my feelings? Because if they say nice things I might give them a better grade on their projects? Or if they say bad things about it I might give them worse grades?
I will need to make it explicitly clear that I wan’t their honest opinions, both good and bad, and that anything they say has no direct influence on any other projects they are working on. Outlining this in the recruiting process is probably best so they know from the outset what is involved.
References
- Hanington, B, & Martin, B (2012), Universal Methods of Design : 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, Quarto Publishing Group USA, Osceola.
- Krueger, R.A. and Casey, M.A. (2014). Focus groups: a Practical Guide for Applied Research. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
- TED-Ed (2017). How do focus groups work? – Hector Lanz. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TwgVQIZPsw. [Accessed: 7/10/23]