Qualitative Data Collection & Analysis
Qualitative data deals with descriptions that can help to identify what is happening from individual perspectives and can explain the story behind the numbers related to your program. Sources for qualitative data include one-on-one interviews, focus groups (interviews with a group of people), open-ended responses on surveys, and artifacts such as the text of program documents. Focus groups offer a particularly cost-effective way to understand what is occurring in your program and to elicit feedback from targeted groups. This page contains some useful tools to think about designing the questions and process of conducting focus groups to inform your evaluation.
Conducting Focus Groups
Krueger-FocusGroupInterviews.pdfThis resource provides brief information related to focus groups including determining group size, moderator skills, how to start/end, and how to design questions.
CCSSE - Focus_Group_Guide.pdfThis resource contains additional detail about focus groups including facilitation do's/dont's, consent forms, checklists, and ideas for reporting results.
Trinity_Duke_How_to_Conduct_a_Focus_Group.pdfThis resource provides a comprehensive list of considerations for the design and execution of focus groups in a checklist format.