The objective is to evaluate and understand the difference between, quantitative research and qualitative research.
There are two data collection measurement methods quantitative and qualitative.
The Quantitative data collection methods, rely on random sampling and structured data collection instruments that fit diverse experiences into predetermined response categories. They produce results that are easy to summarize, compare, and generalize. (Data collection, 2020).
”Quantitative research is concerned with testing hypotheses derived from theory and/or being able to estimate the size of a phenomenon of interest. Depending on the research question, participants may be randomly assigned to different treatments. If this is not feasible, the researcher may collect data on participant and situational characteristics in order to statistically control for their influence on the dependent, or outcome, variable. If the intent is to generalize from the research participants to a larger population, the researcher will employ probability sampling to select participants.
Typical quantitative data gathering strategies include:
- Experiments/clinical trials.
- Observing and recording well-defined events (e.g., counting the number of patients waiting in emergency at specified times of the day).
- Obtaining relevant data from management information systems.
- Administering surveys with closed-ended questions (e.g., face-to face and telephone interviews, questionnaires etc).
Qualitative data collection methods play an important role in impact evaluation by providing information useful to understand the processes behind observed results and assess changes in people’s perceptions of their well-being.Furthermore qualitative methods can beused to improve the quality of survey-based quantitative evaluations by helping generate evaluation hypothesis; strengthening the design of survey questionnaires and expanding or clarifying quantitative evaluation findings. These methods are characterized by the following attributes:
- they tend to be open-ended and have less structured protocols (i.e., researchers may change the data collection strategy by adding, refining, or dropping techniques or informants)
- they rely more heavily on iteractive interviews; respondents may be interviewed several times to follow up on a particular issue, clarify concepts or check the reliability of data
- they use triangulation to increase the credibility of their findings (i.e., researchers rely on multiple data collection methods to check the authenticity of their results)
- generally their findings are not generalizable to any specific population, rather each case study produces a single piece of evidence that can be used to seek general patterns among different studies of the same issue
Regardless of the kinds of data involved,data collection in a qualitative study takes a great deal of time.The researcher needs to record any potentially useful data thououghly,accurately, and systematically, using field notes, sketches,audiotapes,photographs and other suitable means.The data collection methods must observe the ethical principles of research.