eJournal Entry 24

The Experience

This week has marked the transition from the excitement of data collection to the reality of data processing, and I'm discovering that while gathering 38 survey responses and conducting six student interviews felt rewarding, the analytical phase presents entirely different challenges that require sustained focus and technical skills I'm still developing. Working within Sharon Merriam's framework, which emphasizes data triangulation for robust findings, feels particularly demanding as a solo researcher since I'm responsible for maintaining rigor across multiple data sources without the benefit of a research team to share the workload. This time proves how grateful I am to have a statistician as my external adviser as they guide me on how I process my data using R - I am intimidated by R and it is not something I am good at (or even know, really), but my external adviser guides and helps me well through the statistical processing. Having 241 variables in my online survey, my adviser noted that even dedicated quantitative studies rarely handle that volume, which initially felt overwhelming until I remembered that the survey serves as supplemental support for my primary interview findings rather than the central analytical focus.

Currently, I'm managing the dual demands of transcribing and qualitatively coding my student interviews while simultaneously learning R syntax for survey analysis, and while my data collection isn't completely finished (I still need to conduct my technical LMS review), having substantial data to work with allows me to begin processing and start identifying the patterns that will inform my output.

Looking Forward

This intensive data processing phase is teaching me valuable lessons about research project management and the importance of having skilled guidance when venturing into unfamiliar analytical territory. Moving forward, I'll continue leveraging my external adviser's statistical expertise and focusing most of my energy on the qualitative analysis where my strengths lie, and I'm planning to approach the remaining LMS technical review once I complete the interview transcriptions so I can design that analysis component based on themes emerging from the student data. The challenge of managing data processing is actually helping me appreciate the focused, narrative-rich insights from my interviews, and I'm confident that this multi-faceted approach will produce a well-triangulated foundation for practical recommendations.