How do family members and/or friends perceive their role in supporting undergraduate students through their studies

Order Description

The purpose of this assignment is to:
a) Ensure you understand all the issues relating to Ethics, Methodology and Design as they relate to your chosen research question, and
b) To get feedback on your interview questions so that you can get on with your data collection

Please do the following:
1. Write 500 words addressing all listed methods issues below in the assignment planner.
• Remember that each issue will only require a couple of sentences.
• Look at examples of these sections from the journal articles in the reading list as a guide for writing and structure styles.
• You can choose to use subheadings for the issues if you like.
• You must use references to textbooks and relevant articles to support your statements.
• Remember that this will form the ‘Methods’ section of your final assignment, and so it is worthwhile writing it in past tense now, or you will need to remember to change it all to past tense when you come to complete the major assignment.
2. Amend the profile table to fit with your own research question, and fill in if you have already identified your participants (table not included in word count)
3. Attach a full list of the questions you will ask in your interviews/focus groups.

METHODS ASSIGNMENT PLANNER
Key Methods Issues
*NB we are asking what you will do – but we advise you write you assignment in past tense, as though you have already done this – to save work later in shifting to past tense.     Addressed
(tick)    Reference(s) and page numbers I will use to support this will be:
Methodology – which named methodological approach will/did* you use?
e.g. Phenomenology of Hermeneutics
Provide both a definition and at least one example of where this approach has been used by other health researchers (this example might be drawn from articles in literature review)
Data collection
Will you carry out in depth interviews, and/or focus groups?
What sort of questions, and how many will be used in the interviews (e.g. semi-structured, open-ended questions)?Remember to also attach a list of your questions at the end of the assignment.
How many participants will you include in total? How many individual interviews, and how many people in focus groups?
Who will your participants be? (i.e. what criteria are you using for participation?)
Recruitment
How will you access participants (i.e. will they be peers, friends, family members)?
What sampling approach/es will you use?
Ethics
How will you ensure you have informed consent?
How will you ensure you protect the privacy of your participants?
What are your own ‘biases’ and how will you ensure they do not impact on the way you approach your data collection?
How will you ensure your own bias does not impact on the way you represent your participants?
What other ethical issues can you foresee and how might you address them?
Generalisability
How generalisable will your data be?
What benefit is there from collecting in depth data from a small group of participants on a health issue?
Reliability & validity
How will you ensure that the data you collect is reliable and valid?
Reflexivity
How will you reflect on the research process and revise your approach if necessary? (e.g. you might consider keeping detailed notes or a journal on your research process, and if the first interview does not go well you might consider revising your questions accordingly, but then how might this change the data you get?)
Profile table – completed and included within assignment under Data Collection        N/A
Interview questions – attached list        N/A

METHODS ASSIGNMENT STRUCTURE

•    Name
•    Topic Name
•    Tutor Name
•    Chosen Research Question

•    Methods assignment body – 500 words addressing all key methods issues (can be in 2-3 paragraphs, or under subheadings for each key issue)

•    Participant Profile Table (completed as fully as possible – but you might not know all of the details yet as you will not have done the interviews!)

Participant
Age    Gender    Education    Info relevant to your Q (delete and replace this with specific criteria or profile info – e.g. type of undergraduate degree enrolled in, studying full time/part time, type of sports injury experienced, family/peer relationship with student they support, etc.)
1
2
3
4

•    Reference list
•    List of proposed interview questions

Author    Date     Aim of study    Sample size    Methods    Key findings    Limitations    Relevance/Significance