3/4 Data Analysis: what comes before ? - part two

Sampling strategies

Sampling is the method for selecting people, events or objects for study in research. Non-probability and probability sampling strategies enable the researcher to target data collection techniques. These may need to be of a specific size (sometimes determined by a power calculation) or composition.

Data collection techniques

These are the tools and approaches used to collect data to answer the research question /hypothesis. More than one technique can be employed, the commonest are questionnaires and interviews.

Approaches to qualitative and quantitative data analysis

You are now ready to start analysing your data. It may involve qualitative and quantitative approaches, dependent on the type of data collected.

Qualitative and quantitative data analysis

Data comes in all shapes and sizes: audio responses to an interview or focus group, written responses to an online or paper questionnaires, diary entries, documents, observation notes etc. Much of this data is in Words/Text and Numbers , or can be turned into Words/Text or Numbers .

Generally, data is split into two types:

Quantitative:

Numbers, and other data that can be transformed into numbers

Qualitative:

Words/text and other data which come in a non-numerical form.

Sometimes, telling the difference between quantitative and qualitative data can be confusing. For example, if your survey asks people to state whether they are experienced using IT, a novice, or an IT beginner - would the data from their responses be quantitative or qualitative?

The following quiz will test your current understanding and try to clarify the differences...

click to go back to data analysis part two    click to continue to data analysis quiz

For further information

Further information on research methods is available at:

The research tools at Intute

Data analysis at the University of West England