Chapter 2: Literature Review
3.5 Data Collection Instruments
Although the research purpose, and more specifically the research question(s), are linked to both research design and method, it is critical to differentiate between the research design elements and the tools used to generate data. This section describes the research instruments used to provide answers to the research questions of the research study.
3.5.1 Questionnaire
The MMCSR design in this study used Reeve's (2013) LES questionnaire to measure students' engagement in the pharmacy course using the RFC approach. The LES questionnaire was made on Google Forms, and the web-link of the questionnaire was distributed by the course instructor in the chat box area on Blackboard, (the HEI’s online Learning Management System (LMS)), during the in-class online synchronous sessions. Additionally, a description of the research study including the web-link of the questionnaire was also sent by the course instructor to the entire class by email.
36 The LES questionnaire begins with the participants' consent form, which they can agree to by clicking on the “OK” button, and then proceed to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of 35 five-level Likert Scale criteria, which is divided according to four categories, to understand the depth and distinction of the four engagement constructs in Reeve’s (2013) model..
The questionnaire begins with the measurement of the levels of Behavioral engagement, which includes nine questions. It then follows with the measurement of the students’ level of Agentic engagement, which includes seven questions, and proceeds with the measurement of the levels of Cognitive engagement, which includes nine questions. The questionnaire ends with the measurement of students’ Emotional engagement, which includes 10 questions. The Appendix section contains details of the participants Consent form (Appendix 1) and details for the Reeve’s LES Questionnaire (Appendix 2).
3.5.2 Interviews
While the LES questionnaire allows participants to assess their engagement with the RFC learning, the likert scale questions are close ended in nature. Hence, this limits the extraction of qualitative data, which may include the participants' perceptions and experiences with the RFC. To address these concerns, and allow participants to engage directly with the researcher, Interviews were utilized. One of the most widely used qualitative research tool (Ryan et al., 2009), interviews allow the collection and generation of “deeply contextual accounts of participants' experiences and their interpretation of them” (Doody and Noonan, 2009, p. 28). Additionally, interviews also allow the researcher to moderate and facilitate the dynamics of the discussion and ask for clarity when needed (Nyumba et al., 2018), thereby providing detailed insight concerning the research questions.
In this MMCSR study, the qualitative data regarding the perceptions of the learning experience with the RFC approach was collected through a focus group semi-structured interview to gather student responses. Focus groups have some advantages over formal individual narratives through
37 interviews and even surveys, since they use social interactions to discuss topics and share opinions in context, complexity, and depth without establishing a conceptual framework, which may result in more insights (Nyumba et al., 2018). Moreover, utilizing a semi-structured interview plan, in contrast to a structured interview, allows the interview to be focused on the desired research objective, while also giving the freedom to participants to skew the discussion into unexplored conversations where a new insight can be generated (DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree, 2006).
Prior to setting the date for the focus group interview, a Consent Form was sent to collect the student emails and their approval to be interviewed. The purpose of collecting the student email was to send an exclusive invitation to the online meeting. The focus group semi-structured interview incorporated five core interview questions, which sought to acquire the broad reflections of the students’ perceptions with the RFC approach and their learning engagement. Some verbal probing techniques were also adopted, whereby the researcher reiterated the participants' answer and also asked each participant their agreement/disagreement with their peers' answers. This increased the group rapport and also gave the chance to some other participants to express their opinions, so that more authentic data can be generated. This prompted the researcher to include follow-up questioning based on the feedback of the students, and therefore three supplementary questions that were additionally asked. The Appendix section contains details of the participants Consent form (Appendix 3) and details of the Interview Questions (Appendix 5).
The semi-structured interview with the instructor of the pharmacy course consisted of seven core questions which aimed to generate insight into the RFC teaching strategies and instructional flow, as well as the instructor’s perceptions and viewpoints on learning engagement within the RFC experience. A Consent Form to participate in the interview was sent to the instructor, prior to the interview. The Appendix section contains details of the Instructor’s Consent form (Appendix 4) and details of the Interview Questions (Appendix 6).
38 The Interviews for both, the focus group with students and semi-structured interview with instructor were held online on Microsoft Teams, audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The Appendix section contains verbatim transcripts of the semi-structured interview with the Instructor (Appendix 8) as well as the focus group interview with the students (Appendix 7).