Data Collection Methods

Data Collection Methods

• Data collection is the process of gathering the
required information for each selected unit in
the survey.
• The process by which the researcher collects the
information needed to answer the research
questions or problems
• This process is expensive, time consuming,
requires extensive resources and has a direct
impact on data quality.
 Data Collection Methods
• Many decisions must be made by the
researcher regarding the method of data
collection as follows:
• o What data to collect?
• o How to collect the data?
• o Who will collect the data?
• o When to collect the data?
 Data types

Data are special type of information, generally obtained through

observation, surveys, interview, enquiries, or are generated as a
result of human activity.
- Primary Data are collected afresh & for the first time, specially
for the designed study.
-Secondary Data have already been collected & compiled by
someone else.
-Fundamentally--2 types of data
-Quantitative – Numbers, tests, counting, measuring
-Qualitative – Words, images, observations,
conversations, photographs
 Cont...
• But where then does data come from?
• How is it gathered?
• How do we ensure it’s accurate?
• Is the data reliable?
• Is it representative of the population from
which it was drawn?
• This lecture explores some of these issues.
TYPES OF RESEARCH DATA
COLLECTION TECHNIQUES
 Where do data come from?
• There are two main sources of data:
a)Secondary sources and
b)Primary sources
 Secondary sources
• A secondary source is something written
about a primary source.
• Secondary sources are written "after the fact"
- that is, at a later date.
• This involves data collected from literature
sources.
• They provide second hand information.
• Example: Data collected and stored by
organizations like income statements,
national income statistics, etc.
 Secondary sources
• Think about it like this….
• If I tell you something, I am the primary source.
• If you tell someone else what I told you, you are
the secondary source.
• Secondary source materials can be articles in
newspapers, magazines, books or articles found
that evaluate or criticize someone else's original
research
• encyclopedias, history books (textbooks), etc. are
all secondary sources because they were written
“after” the events occurred.
 Advantages Secondary Sources
• It will save you money.
– Even if you have to pay for access, often it is cheaper
in terms of money than collecting your own data.
– Minimum staff required
• It will save you time.
– Primary data collection is very time consuming.
• It may be very accurate.
– When especially a government agency has collected the
data, incredible amounts of time and money went into it.
It’s probably highly accurate.
• No need to reinvent the wheel.
– If someone has already found the data, take advantage of
it.
 Disadvantages of sec. sources
• Is the information exactly what you need?
– In some cases, may have to use “proxy variables” –
variables that may approximate something you really
wanted to measure. Are they reliable? Is there
correlation to what you actually want to measure?
• Are the data consistent/reliable?
– Did variables drop out over time?
– Did variables change in definition over time?
• Is the data set complete?
– There may be missing information on some observations
– Unless such missing information is caught and corrected
for, analysis will be biased.
 Disadvantages … cont.
• When was it collected? For how long?
– May be out of date for what you want to analyze.
– May not have been collected long enough for
detecting trends.
 Primary sources
• A primary source is an original object or
document or materials; first-hand information
that researchers study and analyze.
• Primary source is material written or
produced in the time period that you may be
investigating.
• Primary sources enable the researcher to get
as close as possible to what actually happened
during an historical event or time period
 Primary sources
• Involves consulting recording or observing visuals,
journals and letters, autobiographies, memoirs,
government statistics and studies, and speeches.
• Involves examining works of art, literature, and
architecture or watch or listen to performances and
programs.
• Involves study or initiating case studies or scientific
experiments and take extensive field notes.
• Conduct interviews and use data collected from
questionnaires.
 Primary data
• Primary data are collected by the researcher
himself/herself from the field or by the
research assistants for the purpose of
answering the research question (s).
 Primary Data - Limitations
• Do you have the time and money for:
– Designing your collection instrument?
– Selecting your population or sample?
– Pretesting/piloting the instrument to work out
sources of bias?
– Administration of the instrument?
– Entry/collation of data?
 When choosing methods of data
collection, consider…
•The purpose of your study − Will the method
allow you to gather information that can be
analysed and presented in a way that will be
credible and useful to you and others?
•The respondents − What is the most
appropriate method, considering how the
respondents can best be reached, how they
might best respond, literacy, cultural
considerations, etc.?
 Consider…
• Resources available. Time, money, and staff to
design, implement, and analyse the information.
What can you afford?
•Type of information you need. Numbers, percent's,
comparisons, stories, examples, etc.
•Advantages and disadvantages of each method.
The need for credible and authentic evidence.
The value of using multiple methods.
The importance of ensuring cultural
appropriateness.
 Methods used to collect data
There are many methods used to collect or
obtain data for statistical analysis. The
following are the most popular methods:
• Interview
• Questionnaire
• Observation
• Experimentation
 Interview Method
• Interview is the verbal conversation between two
people with the objective of collecting relevant
information for the purpose of research.
• Under this technique there is a direct contact
between researcher and respondent(s).
• They engage in oral questioning or discussion.
• Interview may be face-to-face (personal
interview) or through telephone (telephone
interview).
 TYPES OF INTERVIEW
1. Personal Interview
2. Telephone Interview
3. Focus Group Interview
4. Depth Interview
 1. Personal Interview
• Personal Interview: Is a face to face two way
communication between the interviewer and
the respondents (talking & listening to
people).
• Generally the personal interview is carried out
in a planned manner and is referred to as
‘structured interview’.
• This can be done in many forms e.g. at home
(door to door) or as a planned formal in office
(executive meeting).
 Methods of conducting an
Personal Interview
• A personal interview involves a lot of
preparation.
• Generally, the personal interview should go
through the following five/5 stages as follows:
i. Rapport Building
ii. Introduction
iii.Probing
iv.Recording
v. Closing
 a. Rapport Building
• Before starting the research
interview, the interviewer
should establish a friendly
relationship with the
respondent. This is described
as “rapport”.
• It means establishing a
relationship of confidence and
understanding between the
interviewer and the respondent
by making the respondent
believe that his opinions are
very useful to the topic or
research.
b. Introduction
• The investigator is a stranger
to the respondents.
• An introduction involves the
interviewer identifying himself
properly to the respondent by
giving him his name, purpose
and sponsorship if any.
• Show why and how the
respondent was chosen in
your sample.
• An introductory letter goes a
long way in conveying the
study’s legitimacy.
 c. Probing
• Probing is the technique of encouraging the
respondents to answer completely, freely and
relevantly.
• Interview question: “What did you like best
about this program?”
• Response: “I liked everything.”
• Probe 1: “What one thing stood out?”
• R: “Being with my friends.”
 Probing
• Probe 2: “What about the program activities?”
• R: “I liked it when we worked as a team.”
• Probe 3: “How come?”
• R: “It was good to hear each other’s
perspectives. I heard some things I hadn’t
considered before.”
• Probe 4: “What is one thing that you
learned?”
 d. Recording
• The interviewer can either write the response
at the time of interview or after the interview.
• In certain cases, where the respondent allows
for it, audio or visual aids can be used to
record answers.
 e. Closing
• After the interview, interviewer should thank
the respondent with a friendly smile and once
again assure him about the worth of his
answers and the confidentiality of the same.
 2. Telephone Interview
• Telephone interview the information is
collected from the respondent by asking him
questions on the phone is called as telephone
interview.
• The combination of telephone and computer
has made this method even more popular.
 3. Focus Group Interview
• Focus group interview is an unstructured
interview which involves a moderator leading
a discussion between a small group of
respondents on a specific topic.
 4. Depth Interview
• This is an intensive interview aiming at
studying the respondent's opinion, emotions or
convictions on the basis of an interview guide.
• It is nondirective in nature where the
respondent is given freedom to answer and
express his/her feeling, emotion and
knowledge within the boundaries of the topic
of interest.
 Interview Problems
1. Inadequate response – in the interview the
respondent gives a relevant but incomplete
answer.
• When the respondent remains silent or
refuses to answer the question, irrelevant
response, in which the respondent's answer is
not relevant to the question asked etc.,
 Interview Problems
2.Interviewer's bias: The interviewer is an important
cause of response bias. He may resort to cheating by
'cooking up' data without actually interviewing. The
interviewers can influence the responses by
inappropriate suggestions, word emphasis, tone of
voice and question rephrasing.
3.Non-response Non-response refers to failure to obtain
responses from some sample respondents. There are
many sources of non-response; non-availability,
refusal, incapacity, inaccessibility.
 Interview Problems
i. Non-availability: Some respondents may not be available at
home at the time of call. This depends upon the nature of the
respondent and the time of calls. For example employed
persons may at be available during working hours. Farmers
may not be available at home during cultivation season.
ii. Refusal: Some persons may refuse to furnish information
because they are approached at the wrong hour and so on.
iii. Incapacity or inability may refer to illness which prevents a
response during the entire survey period. This may also arise
on account of language barrier.
 Advantages of Interview Method
1. Opportunity for Feedback – Interviewer can provide
direct feedback to the respondent, give clarifications
and help alleviate any misconceptions or apprehensions
over confidentiality that the respondent may have in
answering the interviewer’s questions
2. Probing Complex Answers – Interviewers can probe if
the respondent’s answer is too brief or unclear. This
gives interviewers some flexibility in dealing with
unstructured questions and is especially suited for
handling complex questions
 Advantages of Interview Method
3. Length of Interview – If the questionnaire is very
long, the personal interview is the best technique
for getting respondents to cooperate, without
overtaxing their patience
4. Complete Questionnaires – Personal interview
ensures that the respondent will answer all
questions asked, unlike in telephone interview
where the respondent may hang up or in mail
questionnaire where some questions may go
unanswered.
 Advantages of Interview Method
5. High Participation/high response rate –
Interviewing respondents personally can
increase the likelihood of their participation,
as many people prefer to communicate
directly verbally and sharing information and
insights with interviewers
6. Wide coverage: the researcher can collect
data from both literate and illiterate people.
 Disadvantages of Interview Method
1. Cost – Personal interviews are usually more expensive than
mail, telephone and internet surveys. Factors influencing
the cost of the interview include the respondents’
geographic proximity, the length and complexity of the
questionnaire, and the number of non-respondents
2. Lack of Anonymity – Respondents are not anonymous in a
personal (face-to-face) interview and may be reluctant to
disclose certain information to the interviewer. Hence,
considerable must be expended by the interviewer when
dealing with sensitive questions to avoid bias effects on the
respondent’s part
 Disadvantages of Interview Method
3. Necessity for Callbacks – When a person selected for
interview cannot be reached the first time, a callback has
to be scheduled which result in extra cost and time spent
4.Variance Effects – It has been shown that the demographic
characteristics of the interviewer can influence the
answers of the respondents. In one study, male
interviewers had a much larger variance of answers than
female interviewers in a sample of most female individuals.
5. Dishonesty – Interviewers cheat to make their life easier
and save time and effort
 Disadvantages of Interview Method
6. Personal Style – The interviewers individual questioning
style, techniques, approach and demeanor may influence the
respondents’ answers
7. Time consuming – this is particularly when the interviewees
are geographically scattered in which the researcher has to
travel many kilometers to reach them.
8. Language barriers- language problems many hinder smooth
running of the interview.
9. Lack of accessibility- because of limited budget and due to
nature of some places, the researcher are not always able to
include the entire population in the sampling frame.
 Questionnaire
• A questionnaire is a set/series of questions for gathering
useful information from individuals about a given
topic.
• When properly constructed and responsibly administered,
questionnaires become a vital instrument by which
statements can be made about specific groups or people
or entire populations.
• You can administer questionnaires by mail, telephone,
using face-to-face interviews, as handouts, or
electronically (i.e., by e- mail or through Web-based
questionnaires).
 Questionnaire design

Validity of a Questionnaire
•To make appropriate decision we need accurate and consistent
data.
•To achieve this we use valid and reliable questionnaires.
•Validity means that the instrument/procedure used in research
is accurate, true & meaningful. Thus, validity of the results
depends on the quality of the instruments/questionnaire used
in data collection.
– Good questionnaires are difficult to construct; bad
questionnaires are difficult to analyze.

The instrument is valid if it measures what it is supposed

and designed to measure.
 Questionnaire design

Reliability of a Questionnaire:
•Reliability of an instrument is defined as the ability of
the instrument to measure consistently the phenomenon
it is designed to measure.
•Reliability: if something was measured again using the
same instrument, would it produce the same (or nearly
the same) results?
•Questionnaire design should be done carefully because
the validity and reliability of the instrument used to
collect data depends to a large extent on the design of
the questions and the structure of your questionnaire.
Steps in designing a questionnaire:
1. Write out the aims of your study.
2. Write out concepts/information to be collected that
relates to these aims.
3. Review the current literature or identify already
validated questionnaires that measure your specific
variables.
4. Compose a draft of your questionnaire.
5. Revise the draft.
6. Assemble the final questionnaire.
 The Questions or Items
• Are the focus on any survey questionnaire.
• It is crucial to know how to ask the questions in
written and spoken form.
• The way you ask the questions determines the
answers.
N.B. A pilot survey can be done using a small sample
to test the questionnaire (with the intention of
discarding and/or adding questions or clarifying
some questions which are not clear).
TYPES OF QUESTIONNAIRES AND QUESTIONS
Questionnaires can be structured, or unstructured.
1 Structured questionnaires (Closed Ended Questions) are
based predominantly on closed questions which produce data
that can be analyzed quantitatively for patterns and trends. The
agenda is entirely predetermined by the researcher and provides
little flexibility for respondents to qualify their answers as they
are restricted to choose among the given answers.
A closed question can be answered with either 'yes' or 'no'.
1.1 Yes/No Questions
a) Do you have a library membership card?
Yes ( )
No ( )
2 Multiple Choice Questions
What purpose do you visit the library? (Multiple choices)
( ) To read news papers
( ) To refer books
( ) To borrow and return books
( ) To browse Internet
3 Scaled questions - Responses are graded on a continuum
(example: rate the appearance of the product on a scale from 1 to 10,
with 10 being the most preferred appearance). Examples of types of
scales include the Likert scale and rank-order scale
A likert scale is commonly used in survey research it is
often used to measure respondents attitudes by asking the
extent to which they agree or disagree with a particular
question or statement.
Example: To what extent does the information obtained
from the web based resources are useful to you? (Likert
Scale)

Sl. No. Extent

1 Unsatisfied
2 Somewhat satisfied
3 Neutral
4 Satisfied
5 Extremely satisfied
Rankings:
Please rank the following web based resource usefulness
in order of preference (starting from 1 as the least
preferred and 10 as the most preferred).

S/No. Web based resources Ranking

(1…………….10)

1 E-books

2 E-journals

3 Discussion forums

4 Databases
2.2 Unstructured questionnaires (Open-ended)
Non-structured questions, or open-ended questions,
are questions where there is no list of answer
choices from which to choose. Respondents are
simply asked to write their response to a question.
Here is an example:
An open question is likely to receive a long answer.
Example of a Non-structured Question
1.What are the facilities and services do you expect from
your library?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________
2. What mechanisms would you suggest to reduce
students’ failure in mathematics in Higher Learning
Institutions?
______________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____
It is best to use non-structured questions when you are
exploring new ideas and you don't really know what
you expect from the respondents.
3. Semi-structured questionnaires (Partially Structured
Question) take a mixed approach. In some situations, you
may have a partial list of answer choices, but you may still
have some doubt or uncertainty about other possible
responses. You can create a partially structured question
such as the following:
Example of a Partially Structured Question
What purpose do you use web based resources?
•For research work
•To write assignments
•To improve subject knowledge
•For the purpose of seminar presentation
Any other (Please specify): 1.________________
2. ________________
4. Contingency questions
A question that is answered only if the respondent gives a
particular response to a previous question. This avoids
asking questions of people that do not apply to them.
1. Do you have computer knowledge?
Yes ( )
No ( )
2. If ‘yes’ how long have you been using?
•From last 6 months ( )
•From last 1 year ( )
•From last 2 years ( )
•From last 3-4 years ( )
3. Cautions regarding Questions and Questionnaires Construction
1.Keep the questionnaire as short as possible.
2.Ask short, simple, and clearly worded questions.
3.Start with demographic questions to help respondents get started
comfortably.
4.Check the spellings of the question statements
5.Avoid double-meaning Questions
6.If there are any difficult terms in the questionnaire then do explain
them
7.Avoid unnecessary questions
8.Know the academic and mental capacities of the target population
9.If there are certain personal or emotional questions ask them in the
middle or at the end
10.Use polite language i.e. Do not use offensive language
11.Let the respondents know that their privacy will be ensured
 Observation
• A research method that does not involve personal
interaction between interviewer and subject.
• Observational data are facts and figures obtained by
watching, either mechanically or in person, how
people actually behave.
• The use of observation requires the researcher to be
present to the field to observe the event.
• Certain kinds of research questions can best be
answered by observing how people act or how things
look.
 Observation
• Involves all the 5 senses: sight, hearing, smell,
touch and taste.
- Observation includes more than just “seeing”.
- Observation is used to provide information
about real life situations and circumstances.
- To assess what is happening.
 Types of observation
• There are two types of observations:
i. Participant observation
ii. Non-participant observation (structured
observation)
 Participant Observation
• This is a method of data collection in which the
researcher is totally involved in the situation being
researched.
– The researcher is involved in the situation while
collecting data, he becomes part of the group, does
everything carried out and in the process he
examined what is going on.
– Participant observation can either covert or overt.
 Participant Observation
• Covert- the subjects are not aware that they are
being observed and the researcher must be a
participant observer.
• Overt observation- the observer is visible to the
subjects who in turn know that they are being
observed.
 Structured Observation
– The researcher observes and records behaviors but does
not interact or participate in the setting
– Attempts to observe people without interacting with them
i.e. „ Without their knowledge that they are being
observed.
– But, in this type the observer has a predetermined set of
categories of activities to be studied.
Advantages of observation method
• The researcher gets first hand information
• It overcomes language barriers experienced in interview
and questionnaires because communication with
respondent is not necessary
• Observation research provides the researcher the
opportunity to watch what people actually do rather
than relying on reports of what they say they do.
• This approach can avoid much of the biasing factors
caused by the interviewer and question structure
associated with the survey approach.
Advantages of observation method
• No need to rely on respondents memory
• Nonverbal behavior data may be obtained
• Certain data may be obtained more quickly
• May be combined with other research methods
to provide supplemental evidence
Disadvantages of Observation Method
– Only behaviour and physical personal
characteristics can usually be examined. The
researcher does not learn data related to mental
phenomena, such as motives, opinions, attitudes,
intentions, or feelings.
– Observation research can be time consuming
and costly if the observed behavior occurs rather
infrequently.
– Interpretation of data may be a problem
– Sometimes it is very risky and dangerous to the
observer especially when those who are being
observed are not willing to disclose their observation.
 Experimentation
• Experiments - Attempts to determine a cause and
effect relationship between two or more variables.
• Research situation with at least one independent
variable, which is manipulated by the researcher.

• Read more on Experimental Research.

 Bibliography
• Jamal, A. & Kamuzora, F. (2008). Research Methods for Business
and Social Studies. Mzumbe Book Project, Tanzania.
• Kothari, C.R. (2009). Research methodology. New Delhi: New
Age International.
• Krishhnaswami, O.R., & Ranganatham, M. (2009). Methodology
of research in social sciences. Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing
House.
• Panneerselvam, R. (2008). Research methodology. New Delhi:
Prentice Hall of India.
• Ramachandra.. Chandrashekara., & Shivakumar. (2006). Business
Research Methods. Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House.
Thank You…