Reflections on the past week (Theme3 Quantitative methods)

The past week has been about quantitative methods. It has made me think about how to collect data when doing research. But more importantly, it has made me think about that the incentives for doing data collection should be of high importance when choosing and performing quantitative methods. Many times the method used for collecting data is something that is taken for granted. We often know what kind of data we want to gather but often do not think about how to do it in the best way possible. And so the method is something that is explained in retrospect rather than chosen from the beginning. The chosen method should be considered with care because the method is often the part that requires the most time and resources in a research project. However, if resources isn’t an issue it can be useful to use a  rigorous method or mixed methods for getting accurate and appropriate data.

I’ve also taken a look at the SPSS software for managing quantitative data. I like the practical approach with this; actually get to learn or at least take a look at software that we could have use for after the education as well. It seems similar to excel in many ways but more specialized on statistics and managing data from surveys etc. It would have been useful if the use of this software was integrated in some course earlier in the media technology program. It could maybe have been useful for doing the bachelor thesis. However I don’t know to what extent it is widely used and by what companies. Good to now know that it exists at least.

We have also specified our group project further and divided the tasks and different parts within the subject that each group member should work on.