Comments from the professor from module 4,1. I need to explain and answer the question from module 4.1

You think confused quantitative and qualitative research in your post.

Module 4 DQ 1

I think what you have here is great for quantitative research but does not address qualitative research. Can you address this from the standpoint of qualitative research?

Module 4 DQ 1

There are at least six effective strategies for managing quality control in qualitative methods. These include the concepts of: Prolonged engagement, triangulation of data, peer debriefing, member checking, negative case analysis, and audit trail. Prolonged engagement involves the researcher staying in the field long enough to secure genuine understanding and trust of participants (Royse, Thyer, & Padgett, 2016).

Triangulation involves using multiple data sources in the research. Peer debriefing involves having a research team to assist in monitoring sources of bias that may appear during the process. Member checking involves returning to the initial members of the research to give preliminary findings/seek additional understanding, if necessary.

Negative case analysis involves the researcher looking for past cases that refute the current findings (play devil's advocate). Audit trail is keeping thorough records of the steps taken and decisions made during the research analysis; memoing is an example of a technique used in audit trails (Royse et al., 2016).

Hallberg (2013) extends these six strategies by adding the importance of: fit, work, relevance, modifiability, credibility, originality, resonance, and usefulness. These can be explained further by looking at his article. Quality control is important to use to conduct the most ethically and generalizable research possible.

Qualitative research has many benefits that are not captured in a quantitative study. These benefits include the ability to offer a holistic perspective in the process; examining participant's feelings and emotional experiences. The best approach is a mixed methods to capture both emotional experiences and statistical analysis (Royse et al., 2016).

References

Hallberg, L. (2013). Quality criteria and generalization of results from qualitative studies.International Journal of Qualitative

Studies on Health and Well-Being, 8, 1.

Royse, D., Thyer, B., & Padgett, D. (2016). Program Evaluation: An Introduction to an Evidence-Based Approach, Sixth Edition.

Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Module 4 DQ 1

There are many strategies that can be implemented in order to manage quality control on qualitative methods in a program evaluation. On strategy would be to evaluate for reliability and validity of the evaluation.

According to Royse, Thyer, and Padgett (2016), qualitative researchers avoid using the terms reliability and validity, but instead use credibility and trustworthiness. According to Babbie (2013), qualitative research results in nonnumerical data. Triangulation is an effective strategy to corroborate findings and enhance the accuracy of the study (Royse, Thyer, & Padgett, 2016).

Triangulation involves the examination of the consistency of findings generated by different data collection methods. Item analysis is a useful technique for the construction of tests, questionnaires, or surveys, which can be used when test are being constructed for qualitative studies.

This process helps to reduce biases and to ensure the creditworthiness of the evaluation. Items can be analyzed qualitatively which involves the evaluation of content validity and the evaluation of effective item construction procedures (Anastasi&Urbina, 1997).

Items can also be analyzed quantitatively, which includes the evaluation of item difficulty and the evaluation of item discrimination (Anastasi&Urbina, 1997). The way an item is written and presented within an evaluation method is very important to the quality control for an evaluation.

References

Anastasi A., &Urbina S. (1997). Psychological Testing 7th Edition. Upper Saddle River: NJ. Prentice Hall

Babbie, E. (2013).The practice of social research(13th ed.). Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.

Royse, D., Thyer, B. A., & Padgett, D. K. (2016). Program evaluation: An introduction(6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.