Contents
Introduction
Interviews are a research method which involve the resaercher asking questions and recieving answers from the people he/she is interviewing.
Interview types differ in relation to the degree of structure and standardization they encompass. Commonly used typology distinguishes between:
Structured interviews - pre determined question wording and order
Semi-structured interviews - during a semi-structured interview the interviewer goes in with a shopping list of topics that they want responses to. However they have freedom in the sequence, wording and the amount of time they spend on each topic. They may have a set of pre-determined questions, however questions can be omitted or additional ones added to suit the situation. This is guided to some extent by the interviewee’s responses to the questions. added. This is the method largely used within the CRT.
Unstructured interviews - the interviewer has a general area of interest and concern but lets the conversation develop in a completly informal way.
Semi-structured interviews and unstructured interviews are often described as indepth interviews.
Interviews are commonly used as a method to collect data within qualitative research, however they can be used to give extra depth to quantitative research, or to lay the groundwork for a larger study (e.g. to investigate what questions need to be asked in a large scale questionnaire).
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
- Provide a window that opens onto what lies behind our actions
- Provides indepth information
- Can follow up interesting responses
- Non verbal clues may give messages in helping to understand a verbal response
Disadvantages:
- Interviewing requires skill and preparation - questions have to be selected with care
- Time consuming
- When interviews are the main source whereby data is collected we are relying on the truthfulness of the spoken word. Is what the interviewees saying really what they think and do?
Interviewing Tips
Do:
- Pilot test your questions with people who are part of the sample you are interviewing (e.g. if you are interviewing academics pilot test your questions with academics).
Record your interview and write a synopsis within 24 hours. Tips on recording interviews can be found here.
- Listen more than you speak – practice at becoming a “creative listener”
- Put questions in a straight forward way
- Eliminate cues which lead to interviewees responding in a particular way
- Use probes such as “hmmm”, “could you go over that again”, “anything more” or a period of silence to encourage the interviewee to speak more.
- If you are worried about the reliability of the information you are collecting, back it up with data collected by other research methods e.g. observation.
- Enjoy it (or look like you do!)
Don’t:
- Use long questions
- Use questions involving jargon or acronyms
- Use leading questions (e.g. “A lot of staff are now using power point within their lectures, how do you present in your lectures?” would make the interviewee instantly think of power point a better option would be to ask “what do you do in your lectures?”).
- Appear to agree with or disagree with the interviewee
Interviewing People About IT
It is particuarly problamatic when researchers need to conduct interviews concerning IT with non-high-end users of IT. Asking your average lecturer or researcher about "IT services", "networks", "VLE", "security" ect. is using language and vocabulary that does not map to their world. When gathering requirements it is difficult to ask people what they want when they are not aware of the solutions or the way thatt hese solutions could fit into their working processes.
As part of its initiative to profile a representitive sample of OUCS's users and gather requirements for OUCS services the CRT has developed a semi-structured interview schedule that investigates perceptions and requirements of university teachers concerning IT. The interviewer asks the interviewees about what they do for their job, what they do in their teaching (and to a lesser extent admin and research), what they would like to achieve or improve upon and how they use computers in all these tasks. The processes they use to undertake tasks (e.g. preparing teaching materials, organizing meetings, managing a research group) are recorded and their work social networks and IT support routes noted. This is then analysed and IT solutions mapped to processes.
The interview schedule has been pilot tested and refined and is now in use. Go to the Connecting Technology and University Teaching Interview Schedule
Ethical Issues
The personal, conversational nature of interview situations raise a number of ethical issues. Even if you think the interview is on a very mundane or practical topic the very act of questioning can make some people feel intimidated or uneasy. It is important think about issues of confidentiality and who has access to the data that you gather. You must state clearly why you are conducting the interview and what you are going to do with the data. This could be done by giving each interviewee a letter at the beginning of the interview.
See an example of an Informed_Consent_Letter