Focus Groups

Focus Groups

Background

Being hired as an independent and qualitative consultant to hold focus groups in thirteen campuses for the purpose of coming up with suggestions on relation with different activities being selected and the underlying suggestions of various programs. The activities that this focus group tends to consider includes Employment Assistance Services, Career development services, Academic advising support, Student support services, financial support, lateness, tutorial center, etc. The purpose of this paper is to develop a focus group discussion guide in order to facilitate the conduction of focus group interviews.

Discussion Guide

What you're going to cover in the discussion

The most important type of qualitative measures or observations is a focus group. “Focus groups have become extremely popular in marketing and other kinds of social research because they enable researchers to obtain detailed information about attitudes, opinions, and preferences of selected groups of participants.” The discussions within this focus group will mainly be related to the aspects of Employment Assistance Services, Career development services, Academic advising support, Student support services, financial support, lateness, tutorial center, etc and the underlying opinions of the students in relation with these activities.

What is the order for sections?

There will be different sections within the activity related to focus groups. The following order for sections will be utilized;

Introduction to the Activity

Filling up of the Consent Forms from the Participants

Explaining the Basic things to be discussed

Starting the Discussion

Facilitating the Discussion

Conclusion

Token of Appreciation to the Participants

How long each section should last?

The time duration of each section is divided as following;

Introduction to the Activity: 10 minutes

Filling up of the Consent Forms from the Participants: 10 minutes

Explaining the Basic things to be discussed: 5 minutes

Starting the Discussion: 5 minutes

Facilitating the Discussion: 30 minutes

Conclusion: 10 minutes

Token of Appreciation to the Participants: 5 minutes

What is the purpose?

The purpose of this focus group is to take the opinion of different groups from thirteen campuses in relation with the issues of Employment Assistance Services, Career development services, Academic advising support, Student support services, financial support, lateness, tutorial center, etc. This research will compare the opinions of students of different campuses in order to provide a diverse range of opinions and reaching the ultimate conclusion.

Who is going to conduct it?

Focus groups cannot be conducted by everyone. There is a need of specialized facilitators for the purpose of facilitating the focus group discussions. A specialized facilitator is normally needed in order to avoid any unforeseeable circumstances of disagreements between the participants. A specialized facilitator along with one researcher will be conducting the focus group in order to make sure that the focus group remains within the intended directions.

How do you plan to conduct it?

We plan to conduct the focus group by introducing the basic things to discuss and taking the consent of the participants. Moreover, the focus group will be conducted by making sure the comfort level of participants. The discussions will be recorded to make sure that not a single opinion is missed out when compiling up the ...