39
Table 3.2 shows the sample size of students per level of study. Convenience sampling was used to distribute the questionnaires to students.
3.4.3.2 Sampling Process for qualitative method
The researcher used convenience and judgemental sampling for the qualitative method.
8 available lecturers from all schools were interviewed. 8 students’ representatives, one from each school, who were easily available and an IT technician were also interviewed.
3.4.4 Sampling Procedure for quantitative
The sampling of the participants for quantitative was done as follows:
The researcher sought assistance from the school administrators on the number of registered students of all the 8 schools.
Calculations were made on the number of participants per school according to the criteria under section 3.4.4.1.
The research project was explained to the participants. They were asked personally if they wanted to participate.
3.4.5 Sampling Procedure for qualitative
The sampling of the participants for qualitative was done as follows:
The researcher selected the prospective participants for interviews.
Possible participants were selected after the researcher pre-selected participants according to the criteria under section 3.4.3.2.
The research project was explained to the participants. They were asked personally if they wanted to participate.
40
The interviews were intended to provide explanatory data from the questions which were designed to encourage students, lecturers and the IT technician to communicate their understanding of mobile devices. They provided information on mobile devices’ use, their experiences of them, and their opinions about how effective they found them in their teaching and learning as well as providing an assessment of their engagement in comparison to their past learning and teaching experiences.
3.5.1 Qustionnaires
According to Tustin et al, (2010), a questionnaire is a simple data collection instrument that sets out the questions in a formal way to yield the desired information essential to achieve the study objectives.
3.5.1.1 Design of the Questionnaire
The structure of the questionnaire was informed by a number of design imperatives, including:
Participants being able to complete the questions in the absence of the researcher.
The length of the survey being in such a way that participants should feel motivated to complete the survey and not lose interest.
The questionnaire being distributable to many people.
The questions being based on a 5 point Likert scale. The scale ranges from: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree.
The researcher used questionnaires to gather data as they assist with easy access to the potential respondents. Questionnaires enable respondents to freely express their views and to complete the questionnaires at their own pace without any interruptions (Tustin et al, 2010). Questionnaires can be administered to a large number of respondents simultaneously. As a result, they have been proved to be cost effective compared to other forms of information gathering especially when dealing with large sample sizes (Bryman and Bell, 2014). They give all the respondents an opportunity to answer a set of questions anonymously and without any interference. Non- disclosure of one’s identity gives confidence to the respondents and increases the chances of more honest answers.
3.5.1.2 Pre-testing questionnaire
Wiid and Diggines (2013) indicated that pre-testing enables the researcher to determine whether the instructions on the questionnaire are clear and whether there are any problems with the survey
41
design, layout, wording, and if it is necessary to clarify any uncertain measurement items. The participants were encouraged to deliver the feedback and comments found on the initially developed questionnaire. The questionnaires were administered to several colleagues as well as few lecturers and professors to iron out any ambiguity, to ensure that the length and layout were appropriate before distributing them to University students.
3.5.1.3 Administration of the Questionnaires
The researcher distributed the questionnaires to the available students from all schools from second year level upto Masters level over a period of two months. The researcher explained the aim of the study to the participants and asked if they wanted to paticipate.
3.5.2 Semi-structured Interviews
According to Creswell (2013), an interview is a technique that involves a face-to-face approach of gathering data from respondents. Wild and Diggins (2013) define interviews as relatively unstructured, extensive interviews in which the interviewer asks many questions and probes for in-depth answers. This interview aims to explore people’s individual and collective understanding, reasoning processes and other significant factors which may impact upon mobile device use.
Interview questions allow participants to express their views on the issue which is studied (Kumar, 2010 and Tustin et al, 2005). Semi-structured interviews assisted in bringing clarity on all the crucial matters of using mobile devices at the University.
An interview guide was developed and used during each interview and specific data collection questions were set out in the interview guide. The researcher had a list of questions on fairly specific topics to be covered but the interviewees had leeway on how to reply. Questions may not follow the exact order outlined on the schedule and the wording may be changed by the interviewer (Bryman and Bell, 2014). Some questions not included in the interview guide may be asked and the interviewer picks up on responses by interviewers (Bryman and Bell, 2014). This guideline was used during each interview to maintain the sequence of questions and the level of consistency of each interview.
3.5.2.1 Pretesting the Interview guide
Before conducting the interviews, the interview guide was pretested at the University of Venda with few senior lecturers and colleagues. The aim of this process was to see if the questions would be tapping into the same overall phenomenon and whether differences in the wording
42
elicited similar responses. Also this process ensured that the interview questions could be understood and measured validly. Based on the comments received from the pretest, modifications were made to the interview questions to improve their clarity before using it in the actual interview.
3.5.2.2 Administration of the Interview
The researcher conducted the interviews with 8 lecturers from all schools, 8 student school representatives and an IT Technician at the University of Venda. Emails were sent to the student schools chairpersons requesting for an interview date and time. The interviews for lecturers and the IT techinician were done to the ones who were available and willing to participate.