Jizzakh state pedagogical institute named after abdulla kadiri foreign languages faculty

Focus Group Sessions
Focus Group Sessions take the interactive benefits of an interview to the next level by bringing a carefully chosen group together for a moderated discussion on the subject of the survey.
Advantages:

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  The presence of several relevant people together at the same time can encourage them to engage in a healthy discussion and help researchers uncover information that they may not have envisaged.
  
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  It helps the researchers corroborate the facts instantly; any inaccurate response will most likely be countered by other members of the focus group.
  
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  It gives the researchers a chance to view both sides of the coin and build a balanced perspective on the matter.
  

Disadvantages:

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  Finding groups of people who are relevant to the survey and persuading them to come together for the session at the same time can be a difficult task.
  
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  The presence of excessively loud members in the focus group can subdue the opinions of those who are less vocal.
  
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  The members of a focus group can often fall prey to group-think if one of them turns out to be remarkably persuasive and influential. This will bury the diversity of opinion that may have otherwise emerged. The moderator of a Focus Group Session must be on guard to prevent this from happening.
  

Use Case:
Focus Group Sessions with the lecturers of a university can be a good way of collecting information on ways in which our education system can be made more research-driven.
Conclusions
Keeping these factors in mind will go a long way toward helping you choose between the four data collection techniques. The recent evolution of technology has given researchers powerful tools and dramatically transformed the ways that researchers interface with their subjects.


2.4. Choosing the Right Tool for Data Collection: Paper vs. Digital Tools vs. IVR
Primary data forms the life blood of any survey. The best of survey design and planning efforts finally come down to this. Any research is only as good as the data that drives it. Evolution of technology has given the researchers powerful tools and dramatically transformed the ways in which researchers interface with their subjects. In this article we will explore digital tools and IVR, the exciting new data collection methodologies, and weigh them against the traditional paper-based surveys.
Paper-Based Surveys
Despite the advent of technologically superior, and arguably more efficient alternatives, paper-based surveys remain an important tool for primary data collection. A questionnaire is administered to the subjects directly either via an instructive letter or by an interviewer who assists them in navigating through the survey.
Advantages:

1. 
   Low overhead cost: Paper based surveys have a low overhead cost and do not require the initial investment and effort associated with the other modern methodologies that we shall see later.
   
2. 
   Little or no training required: They come with a sense of familiarity, since people are used to dealing with paper based information. In demographics that are not very tech savvy, paper based methods may elicit the best response.
   
3. 
   Potentially higher reach: They have the potential to reach even the most remote interiors of the nation that suffer from poor power supply and communication connectivity.
   
4. 
   No technical glitches: Paper based methods, being manual in nature are less susceptible to technical glitches.
   

Update: We changed our mind on this after the UNFPA ran out of pencils while carrying out the recent Census in Myanmar. Just a few days into the census, many regions ran out of pencils. They were being sharpened so furiously by newly-hired enumerators that UNFPA had to make an emergency international procurement of 170,000 pencils to keep things on track.
Disadvantages:

1. 
   Time consuming: Administering paper based surveys is a time consuming process. The time taken during the transfer of information from the point of collection to the hub of data assimilation and analysis is unavoidable in paper based surveys due the manual nature of the process.
   
2. 
   Data entry: Transferring information collected through paper based surveys to computers for digitization and analysis has room for erroneous entries through lapse of human attention. This is another drawback that can be addressed using the more technologically advanced alternatives.
   
3. 
   Retaining records: Record retention and recall can be a challenge. Maintaining all the response sheets used during the paper based surveys can mean a lot of unnecessary bulk. Sheets of paper can also suffer from wear and tear during transit and storage.
   
4. 
   Logistical difficulties: Surveys that are delivered by post and expect the respondents to post the completed survey through mail may never receive a response as most respondents have shown unwillingness to take that extra effort.
   

Paper-based surveys can be a viable alternative to collect information about the impact of tribal welfare schemes, for instance, at the hinterlands of the sparsely populated states in North Eastern India. The lack of familiarity with digital tools among respondents and poor communication connectivity makes paper based surveys the most reliable option.
Digital Tools
The assumption of lack of familiarity with digital tools and poor communication connectivity would, happily, not hold up in most parts of our country today. Wireless infrastructure has grown tremendously and low cost mobile devices have shown extraordinary penetration even in the most unlikely of places. People all over the country, from all walks of life have benefitted immensely more this digital revolution. This has also made them more accessible to the researchers. Real-time data collection and analysis has never been easier.