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Has anyone successfully carried out a focus group for college?

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  • 21-07-2014 9:41pm
    #1
    Lorrs33
    Registered Users Posts: 690 ✭✭✭


    I'm conducting a focus group for my dissertation and I really don't know what to expect. I was hoping maybe someone could give me some advice.


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    #2
    Miss.Mayhem
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭Miss.Mayhem


    I'm trying to do this at the moment. I'm not having much luck getting people to do it. I have do a survey too. I've posted it on various websites but I've only got 11 responses after a week of trying.


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    #3
    Lorrs33
    Registered Users Posts: 690 ✭✭✭Lorrs33


    I'd be delighted with 11 responses tbh. I'm worried I'll get none at all.


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    #4
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    I did one in UCC a few years ago.
    It was tough enough to recruit volunteers for it. We booked a room for it, got permission from them to video it and all of that stuff.

    Don't get too bogged down on the technicalities though, the main thing is to make sure that your questions are really well designed and that you're actually probing the information that you need to know about.

    Focus groups can start to wander way off the point very quickly if you're not careful.

    The two key things are:

    1) Good moderation.
    2) Good questions (not leading ones).

    If you don't get those things right you'll get a bad mark.

    Also, try to get people talking naturally as much as possible. They need to start forgetting that it's a focus group to really get some decent info out of them about whatever the topic is about. If the moderation is too starchy, that won't work at all.
    It's really important to make people feel comfortable and at ease.


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    #5
    stephenamccann
    Registered Users Posts: 52 ✭✭stephenamccann


    Also looking for people to take my survey. Posting on this so that I can actually post a URL. But for focus groups, I know my girlfriend successfully carried some out. If you're struggling, why not try a skyped focus group so you could reach further?Also, I wouls say examiner will be impressed with the limitations and reasons for doing skype - shows ingenuity.


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    #6
    Ferris_Bueller
    Registered Users Posts: 5,563 ✭✭✭Ferris_Bueller


    I conducted three focus groups for my dissertation in the year gone, it was a bit of a nightmare to be honest, there were a lot of times where I had agreed to do it on say 7pm Friday night, only to get a text from one or two of the participants the day of it to say they can't attend, this held up things for quite a few weeks and in the end I had to just go ahead and do it without one or two of them and put this into my limitations. As SpaceTime said it can be quite easy to go off topic, but when it goes right I found it very interesting, felt like I was getting some really good information and that when it got into it it flowed like a good group conversation.


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