Along with qualitative data, my goal was to collect quantitative data in the form of a survey. Developing the raw questions was relatively easy but refining them to a point where anyone could take the survey with ease, took some doing. I didn’t have much experience in this level of refinement and was too close to the subject to refine it. I enlisted Dr. Baack (Nope. That’s not him on the right.) to help evaluate the questions and make sure things were as clear as possible.
The other thing that I had to do was get my survey and my methods of collection approved by IRB (Instructional Review Board). The goal of this organization is to ensure that your research methods are ethical and don’t jeopardize anyone you’re surveying in any way. My research had us collecting personally unidentifiable information. This was an interesting process to go through and required several documents including a consent form, an IRB application, a copy of the survey, a translated copy of the survey and the research protocol.
In the end we got a great survey. English version here and Japanese version here.Â
