There are many different techniques you can employ to ensure that your Asynchronous Interview or Diary Study are successful. The categories below outline best practices for participant recruitment & engagement, effective moderation and journal activity development. Contact your itracks Representative for more information or reach out to the help desk if you have additional questions at all.
Set Clear Expectations
Participant Recruitment
Ensure that it is outlined to participants early on that this is a journal/ diary study and not a group
discussion. That way, they are not disappointed when they realize that they may not be talking to
other people. In some cases, this could also be a factor that encourages them to do the research.
For example, if the topic is of a more confidential nature.
Please be sure to outline other expectations during recruitment, surrounding the length of time, project
specific items like the nature of the exercises, etc.
Reinforce Expectations During the Study
Incorporate details on the study and what expectations you may have of the research participant as the project unfolds. Remind them that the study is confidential and that they will be primarily sharing responses to the moderator and not other participants.
Keep Respondents Engaged
Set Dates and Keep Respondents on a Schedule
With longer-running projects in particular, the biggest challenge that you will find is keeping your participants engaged and coming back. You may want to set dates for when you will be posting the next set of questions and tell the participants when you are going to post the next set of questions within your
guide or within the project.
Create Dynamic Exercises
You may also want to consider some exercises beyond just writing on the board -- this may be getting people to upload pictures or simply getting them to do some type of exercise on paper before writing on the board. We have some clients who do interviews all the time, and one thing that is done to make things more interesting is to show a picture in the whiteboard area – not to evaluate but to add something to the question - this is a small thing, but it can set the mood and give the participants something to look at rather than a logo. Although writing a diary is not overwhelming, since they are not actually ‘talking’ to anyone but the moderator, you want them to somehow feel engaged in the process.
Use Video Questions
As a moderator, you have the option of setting up questions so they show text, a recorded video or both. In some cases, it makes sense for a moderator to post a video question instead of posting a text question. Some examples are - when introducing yourself to build that initial rapport with your participants, if you need to describe how to answer a trickier question, or if you are doing a video-only study and want the participant to see the face they are responding to.
Send Reminders Regularly
Send reminders to participants when you post new questions, so participants do not forget about their tasks between their times in the group. The itracks Broadcaster Tool makes it easy to send reminders quickly. This also fosters another level of engagement – send the emails with your name rather than the system default so you can build a bit of rapport with the participants early on.
If your study is larger in size or of a considerable length, you will not be able to do all the things that you normally do in a typical '3-day discussion board' in respect to what we call active moderation (basically making it look like you, as the moderator, are as engaged in the group as the participants are). Feel free to probe liberally and respond to people as you can, but you won’t be able to do it for all people - making it look like you are the one sending out emails and reminders will help you a lot here.
Some examples of guide development
Introduce yourself and establish guidelines. To begin a group, the Moderator should state the purpose of the study and provide guidelines. This includes a personal introduction, purpose, timeline, instructions on entering responses and how the group is meant to proceed, and encouragement to be candid.
Include wording in your guide that gives direction to your participants on what to expect throughout the study, and cover any housekeeping you may need to include that you automatically include in a face-to-face discussion. These can be concluding statements to each day they are in that instruct participants to log back in and/or look for any follow-up comments from you and respond. These items also make the study more personable.
Start with general questions for people to answer. This allows for a warm-up for people to get into the right mindset to answer questions as well as getting them more comfortable with the software.
Below are some structural things to consider when writing your guide:
Example 1 – Set Up Different questions and activities each day.
TOPIC 1 - WELCOME
Question 1: Introduction [INTERVIEW MODE]
Hello and welcome to XXXXXXX diary!
My name is XXXXXXXX, and over the next xxxx I will be moderating this journal discussion/interview discussion.
Thank you again for agreeing to participate. Before we begin, I’d like to quickly reiterate the purpose of this
discussion….
Question 2: Instructions [INTERVIEW MODE]
Over the next three days, I will be asking you to log on to this ongoing journal at least [amount of time expected to come into the board] to voice your opinions on the following topics:
[ANY TERMS NEEDED FOR THE STUDY, SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS ETC. will be added in here]
You will receive your $X honorarium by answering all of the questions submitted by me, the moderator.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AT ALL "technical, procedural, or otherwise" feel free to post questions by
clicking "REPLY" button next to any of my "Mod" posts.
TOPIC 2 – JOURNAL DAY 1
Question 1: Introduce yourself. [INTERVIEW MODE]
Please think of your journal entries as a way to fully express yourself. When you write about…. Do not just
focus on what happened but also includes your thoughts/feelings/etc. towards the process. When you
made a decision to do one thing rather than another think about why.
Do not worry about grammar etc. just let your thoughts flow. We will follow up if anything is unclear.
For your first diary exercise think about … once you have that in your mind ….
Today we are going to tackle certain subjects. Let’s begin with introducing yourself and your family.
Question 2: About xxxx [INTERVIEW MODE]
Now, let’s talk about the topic at hand….. [CONTINUE TO ASK RELEVANT QUESTIONS, ASK PEOPLE TO
DO EXERCISES, ETC.]
Example 2 – Same question posted each day.
TOPIC 1 - WELCOME
Question 1: Introduction [INTERVIEW MODE]
Hello and welcome to XXXXXXX diary!
My name is XXXXXXXX, and over the next xxxx I will be moderating this journal discussion/interview discussion.
Thank you again for agreeing to participate. Before we begin, I’d like to quickly reiterate the purpose of this
discussion….
Question 2: Instructions [INTERVIEW MODE]
Over the next three days, I will be asking you to log on to this ongoing journal at least [amount of time expected to come into the board] to voice your opinions on the following topics:
[ANY TERMS NEEDED FOR THE STUDY, SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS ETC. will be added in here]
You will receive your $X honorarium by answering all of the questions submitted by me, the moderator.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AT ALL "technical, procedural, or otherwise" feel free to post questions by
clicking "REPLY" button next to any of my "Mod" posts.
TOPIC 2 – JOURNAL DAY 1
Question 1: Your First Day [INTERVIEW MODE]
Please think of your journal entries as a way to fully express yourself. When you write about…. Do not just
focus on what happened but also includes your thoughts/feelings/etc. towards the process. When you
made a decision to do one thing rather than another think about why.
Do not worry about grammar etc. just let your thoughts flow. We will follow up if anything is unclear.
For your first diary exercise think about … once you have that in your mind ….
Each day I want you to come in and tell me about your experience with …. Here are some questions to
consider each day.
[INCLUDE LIST OF QUESTIONS TO FOLLOW AS A GUIDE IF APPLICABLE – GET THEM TO TELL
DIFFERENT STORIES, FOCUS ON DIFFERENT ELEMENTS EACH DAY THEY NEED TO LOG THEIR
EXPERIENCE]
Please try to write for [xxx amount of time] today.
<SAME QUESTION REPEATED DAY 1, 2, 3 etc.>
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.