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Dr. Hai-Jew discusses her newest and most exciting publication Enhancing Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research with Technology

Interview with Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew

By IGI Global on Apr 7, 2015

Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew is one of IGI Global's most esteemed and prolific editors and contributors. An instructional designer at Kansas State University (K-State), Dr. Hai-Jew has taught at the university and college levels for many years. She reviews for several publications including Educause Quarterly and MERLOT’s Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. Dr. Hai-Jew's newest title, Enhancing Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research with Technology explores the integration of new digital tools into the research process, in light of the expensive nature of quantitative research. Dr. Hai-Jew recently took a minute to discuss more on this book and her ongoing research with Marketing Assistant, Beth Ellen Dibeler.

Enhancing Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research with Technology

How do you hope this publication will affect current research methods? How have programs and technology improved the research methods for today’s practitioners?

I hope the book will serve as a catalyst to encourage more fearless experimentation with technologies that enhance research work. The book itself (at 643 pages) only touches on a few technology tools, but there really is a whole universe of technology resources out there and a wide range of applied techniques in a number of different domains. In the recent past, software and app makers have really outdone themselves in terms of making their products easy-to-use through engaging interfaces and well documented functions. The hard coding work is done for so many tools, but it can still be a hard sell to get people to invest the learning and to fully exploit the capabilities.

Part of my job (as an instructional designer) involves bringing people at my university on board to use research technologies. I have to remember that the learning curve can be challenging for many and that my own learning was acquired over time; I have to remember that there are many appropriate paths through a tool. One example of a learning object that I created to help with this training is Using NVivo: An Unofficial and Unauthorized Primer.

Have you used technology for your own research, and if so, how was it beneficial?

So I use a wide variety of technologies every day for my job as an instructional designer. There is the typical suite of tools used for authoring digital learning objects, learning management systems, survey systems, research tools, drawing tools, animation tools, mapping tools, network graphing tools, and just a wide range of stuff. The software on my machines are way more expensive than the laptops and desktops themselves. (I also have a number of open-source and freeware tools that I use on a daily basis.)

What I use also varies based on whatever projects I am supporting. Recently, I just finished months of data analysis for a grant-funded project. Interestingly enough, MS Excel and Word were all that I needed to optimally process the data and present it for the principal investigators in multiple countries. I’m all for simplicity and not complicating the work. It’s important to go with the simplest and most efficient solution for the project at hand. When I was a faculty member, I had more of a formal reason to conduct research, but ironically, it wasn’t until I left my tenured faculty member position and arrived at Kansas State University to serve as an instructional designer that I finally was able to make some space in my professional life to conduct more research.

There is a wide range of types of questions that can only be asked with any efficiency and accuracy by using technology. For example, text summarization of large-scale text corpuses can really only be efficiently done by machine. Or extracting data from the Surface Web and Internet for network analysis. Or conducting certain types of matrix queries in qualitative research.

I think the hard part—and I can vouch for this firsthand—is learning the tools and methods can take a long time and be a hard slog. If a person cannot appreciate the complexities (and break these down into incremental parts) and still be persistent and dogged, he or she will not get to the point where he or she can wield the tool with any effectiveness. There are plenty of people who will only learn a tool on the surface and just enough to pretend that they can get by, but for anything to be used, there has to be actual mastery and then actual creative application to research problems with some relevance. It’s important not to stop short.

Social media seem to be a trending feature in your chapters. Can you explain why social media are an important source for real-world data and analysis?

In qualitative and mixed methods research, theoretically, every aspect of life may have some informational value. Digital contents may be scraped for analysis. People are informants and “sensors.” Of late, electronic social network analysis has been an engaging approach, and with so many social media platforms out there (and many with public APIs), these are just cool go-to sources. In our current age, we are all about the Social Web, and so many types of studies overlap with people and their perceptions and their choices. It is hard to argue that online social media platforms and the Surface Web and the Internet are irrelevant to various types of social sciences research.

I have other types of research approaches that I’ve been using, such as an e-Delphi study and various types of surveys. My challenge is to make sure that my research aligns with my campus work.

Does changing technology make it difficult to stay ahead in this era of research? What are you doing to keep up?

Information technologies, by nature, tend to be predictable and structured. In other words, if you learn a tool accurately, in general, that knowledge stays relevant. When software tools evolve, there are added features and functionalities. Rarely do you have major leaps or overhauls in the technology. This is good for a person who needs to stay atop a tech-heavy field. In some ways, being adept with some software tools makes it that much easier to acquire the next time. The reason is that those who create software are mindful of the mental models of their users, and they build graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in fairly similar ways. Many also tend to document the tool features fairly well. It’s easier for me to learn a software tool when it is applied to a particular project, and I have to come up with something usable and coherent from it. It helps when I can watch someone else use the tool. Although on a campus with ambitious professionals, most will not have the time to share their learning, and many others are willing to write a big check to have the work done, but are not usually available because their schedules are so busy.

Where I take extra time to learn is to review underlying statistical methods or modeling methods or changes in research theories or assumptions in particular learning domains. On a university campus, there are numerous differences between how researchers in their respective fields work to (dis)confirm findings. There are differences in data handling and processing. To actually work well on a team, all those understandings have to be ferreted out (efficiently) and adhered to.

To keep up, I try to read up on the changing technologies in the academic research literature. I try to get my hands on the actual software, so I can use it in an applied way. I try to attend conferences and to listen to those who have much more experience than I do in a variety of tools. I actually really enjoy hearing those who are experts, even if it sounds like they’re totally speaking a foreign language when they are talking about their areas of expertise. I enjoy virtuosity in others even if it’s in an area that I know nothing about.

Finally, a very common trick in my area (IT) is to “Google it” if there are questions. There are so many publicly available resources (some of them pretty good) for the most common tech tools.

You mentioned this was one of your favorite publications. Tell us why this title stands out as a favorite from your others.

Yes, Enhancing Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research with Technology is my favorite book ever for a couple reasons. It has a huge ambition and scope. The contributors who wrote for it really brought it—in terms of creativity and insights. (I think the most successful books are those that somehow align with where people already are and are headed; otherwise, it’s a major challenge to acquire substantive chapters. Reading public interests is terrifically hard.) The title suggests, quite accurately, how much researchers can benefit from the proper application of technology and complementary research techniques.

I’m also deliriously happy with the cover. That was handled by IGI-Global in-house during production, and there are just times when the visual fits with the contents, and this was one of them.

Do you have any plans for additional publications, and how will these publications be related?

I have a couple chapters forthcoming from a competitor publisher this year. These works describe applied uses of an open-source software tool and network analysis techniques to achieve particular research aims. The specific chapters have been in development since 2014, but even longer before that if you count the lead-up work (which would set it back to 2012). My point here is that it takes a lot of work to position to be able to write and publish on topics that others haven’t already directly addressed. So these two chapters are in my current plans.

In addition, I have a forthcoming project with IGI Global, titled Social Media Data Extraction and Content Analysis. The call for chapter proposals is open, and there are already some interesting projects in the works. I would be grateful for any ideas or submissions for this project.

Related Posts:
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An interview with IGI Global Editor Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew
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