Project #2: Primary Research Materials
For Project #1, you researched an emerging technology or technology-related issue that might prove beneficial to professional writers and wrote an extensive report on that technology using secondary sources.
Project #2 asks you to go further and perform actual research on current users of that technology. While we will not be interacting with actual human subjects, you will develop a set of materials that might be used if you were to engage in primary research on users (we are not actually interacting with human subjects due to our physical and temporal constraints). The result will be a set of materials that could be distributed to a particular group of users to explore how professionals currently use (or could use) that particular technology.
Deliverables
Written research rationale--this document should provide a framework for the set of materials that you will produce. It should provide a proposed research rationale (why this research is important/what it will accomplish that cannot be accomplished with secondary sources), an explanation of how you will distribute the information and procedures you will follow, the recruitment of subjects, the potential risks to subjects, and the benefits to be gained. You will need to specify whether this information applies to each research instrument in your set of materials or to all of them (obviously, your recruitment of subjects might be different for your focus group as compared to your interview). You will use the linked MS Word form to present this information.
According to your research topic, you will submit materials for three of the following research methods most appropriate for your research question:
Focus group--this document will provide a scenario and a series of questions related to your research question for a session with a focus group.
Survey/Questionnaire--this document will include a questionnaire on your research question, complete with specific instructions. This component may be produced online or in print.
Interview--this document will consist of a description of the interview scenario and a set of questions about your research question that you might ask to an expert.
Usability Study--this document will consist of a description of a usability study scenario and a set of specific tasks that you might ask users to undertake.
Use the exact form linked above for your research rationale (removing the orange text, of course). Here is an example of this document. The remaining components should be professionally developed and designed. In short, they should look as if they are ready to send out to participants.
A draft consisting of all four components will be shared with your peers on Tuesday, March 24.
The final project is due on Thursday, March 26.