To experience a qualitative method of research by conducting an online observation and analysis of a product or service.

 

Components/Sections in the Plan:

• Choose a product, service or company that interests you.
• Observe and collect online comments for 3 days (minimum of 10 comments per day)
  • Use at least 2 sources for observation such as review sites (like Yelp, Trip Advisor, CNet, etc.) and social media (such as Twitter or Facebook)
  • Copy and paste comments into Word and/or a Qualitative Analysis software such as Reframer, QDA Miner Lite or NVivo
  • Do not discriminate in comment selection (such as choosing all positive or all negative), either use random selection or choose the first 10 comments from each source each day.
• Use content analysis to understand themes and patterns within your collected data. You may perform your content analysis manually or using one of the software programs mentioned above.
• Provide qualitative summary report with the following sections:
  • Introduction - include an overview of the product/service selected and research problem statement (approx. half a page)
  • Methods - include the steps taken to conduct the observation, collection and analysis including dates, tools
  • Analysis - summarize your analysis including any major themes uncovered and the frequency of those themes. Use quotes as examples to highlight important themes. Analysis should be in paragraph form but can use bullets to highlight frequency or certain points
  • Conclusions and Recommendations - summarize any major findings in a concise paragraph making connections to the analysis.  Provide 3 recommendations based on your analysis and conclusions.

Appendix - include a copy of the data collected in raw form (prior to theming) or in categories (themes)