In this blog post I will be evaluating the different tools and methods that I used when conducting my primary research.
There are many different research methods that can be used when conducting research, the ones I have used and the ones I am going to evaluate are, questionnaires and vox pops.
Firstly, I will evaluate the effectiveness of the methods and tools that I used.
Questionnaires:
The first research method that I undertook was questionnaires, this is a source of primary research. Gathering this research helped me because, I was able to ask different questions to a number of people and then retrieve many different answers which were all relevant to the questions in which I had asked.
To conduct the questionnaire, the first thing we had to do was create a rough plan of the questions which we wanted to ask and if we wanted bothe open and closed ended questions or not. Afterwards when we had completed our rough plan, we then had to crate our final survey and to do this we used survey monkey. Once our survey had been made people then gave their answers to each question which then generated graphs and bar charts for us to use. I that the questionnaires were quite effective because, we were able to choose the different style of answers (e.g multiple choice or tick boxes) to gain a detailed questionnaire. I think producing a questionnaire as a primary research has helped because, I have been able to gather quantitative and qualitative data from peoples answers. We also used social media (Facebook) to gain more answers not only off classmates boots friends outside college too. This also helped me with my research as the more information I had the better it would be for my Kelham Island Museum final product.
I also thought that the questionnaires went well because, using survey Monkey was relatively quick and easy to add in all the information that I had gathered, it was also easy to edit so if I made any mistakes I was able to go back to the right page and correct the mistakes. Using survey Monkey is also helpful as it does all the work for you but it also makes it look interesting, it will also make it look more appealing and also eye-catching to others when they read my questionnaire. I think that5 my questionnaires were quite effective because, I gained enough information to help me with my KIM product. I also think they were effective because, all the people who I asked gave an answer which was relevant to the question.
VOX POPS:
The second method in which I used to carry out my research was vox pops. To ensure that the vox pops are successful and that they run smooth, I had to firstly conduct some planning and come up with a few questions that were relevant to our product, after the planning I then had to book out some equipment from college to carry out the vox pops. I then interviewed students and staff members to receive their knowledge of the museum. The information that I had received helped me when filming because, I was able to take in board what people had said and was also able to interpret the information gathered into my video. When I had finished filming them I then had to edit the finished product, export it onto YouTube and then add the link onto our Facebook group. I think that the vox pops went very well and I thought they were successful because, I gathered a lot of information and knowledge from the people who were asked, it was also relevant to the topic, I was able to receive a decent amount of information which them helped me with my product. Having carried out the vox pop as one of my research methods, this has helped me produce my video to the best of my ability because, all the information gathered was quite detailed and this helped me because I knew exactly what people wanted to see in my video and was able to include exactly what people said they wanted to see.
Internet research:
The last of the 3 methods that I used was internet research. I used this method to find out more in-depth information about the museum such as, the different attractions, accessibility and also information about hearing impairment. With this type of research I was able to find out different information that was interesting but also information that the people who we asked didn’t comment on, this was a good thing because it meant that I could include some of the information that some people may have not known about and they would have also learnt something new. When doing the internet research I also found out what the weather was going to be like on the day we were filming the product. I also looked online for some reviews from the public to9 see what they said about the museum before we went. I looked on trip adviser to find these reviews. we were also asked by teaches to produce another blog with the4 information in which we had found out added to it. After I had found out this information I added it to the post and then added a link to the post. Using this link has helped me with my work because, I have been able to find out the most important information needed for my KIM product.
What went well and not so well?
I think the vox pops which we undertook went really well because we were able to ask a number of different people and receive different answers . some members of the college who we asked were staff members an some student, so it was helpful to get different answers and to see what people wanted to know for my video and also it was good to see what they already knew as I didn’t have to include the things people knew in my video.
To plan the vox pops in groups we had to write down a rough pan of the questions we wanted to ask our interviewees, we had to think of about 5 questions to ask different people so we could gather different answers. We then had to book out the equipment to undertake the voxpops. the equipment that we used for the vox pops is, a camera, tri pod and a voice recorder.
I also think that the internet research in which I undertook for my KIM product went well. I think the internet research that I did went well because, I knew what I had to research about and was able to get on with it and find the relevant information that I needed for my final video. To find out the correct information I used this website shown below:
http://www.simt.co.uk/kelham-island-museum
This is the website that I used to collect all the necessary data for my KIM museum. This website has helped me a lot because, I was able to find all the information needed from one website without using too many different websites. Using just one website was quick and easy because, I had all my information in one place and didn’t have to go from one website to another. This website was also easy because all the information I needed was clearly displayed and was also easy to see and read. I was also able to do all the internet research relatively independent with little help.
Were the 3 methods used effective? why?
Overall the 3 methods that I used were effective because, I gained different answers for all of them, the methods were easy to undertake, they didn’t take long to prepare and my final reason is that I have all the evidence for the research which I have carried out. In addition to this I do think that the questionnaire and the internet research were more effective because, I gained the most information for those types of research methods. I did receive a decent amount of information for the rest of the research but not as much as I would have liked to. If I was to re do this again I would expand on my questions to gain better quality answers for the interviews. Some of the people who we interviewed did not know exactly what the question was about so if I was to do this again I would explain the question more so that people can give a better answer which will also help us to gain more infomation for our project.
Expanding on our chosen methods would also help with doing future projects because, I will be able to gain more knowledge of how to plan and set out the questions in which I would like to ask.
What was the point of doing all this research?
The point of doing all this research was, to find out the relevant information that we needed for our Kelham Islamd Museum project. Finding out all this infomation also helped us to come up with the right questions that we needed for our questionnaire and our vox pop. Without this information we would not have been able to carry out our project to the best of our ability. We also needed to make sur that we were targeting our audience correctly for this project, this means that we had to select the most important peoxes of infomation to include in our Video. We also had to make our video interesting and appealing as it was a promotional video to I courage the public and the people who have never visited to go and visit the museum.
What ideas did these give me for my film?
From conducting all this research, I gained a few different types of research mothods. These different methods helped me when making my film. Undertaking this research also helped me because, it helped me to know what I wanted to include in my final film.
Conducting this research helped me with my ideas because, I used the different methods to gain an idea of what people would like to see, what people knew about the museum and another reason was to find out a wide range of information by asking different people such as, staff members and students of our college.
Lucy Millar 