[Informatics] Codifying Data

[Mark]

But questions that are *excessively* tightly-structured become *closed
questions* that constrain the freedom of the respondent to give new and
valuable information that had not been known before about the hypothesis in
question.

*Qualitative* info gathering is all about *learning the subject from
scratch*; defining the main issues; finding out what is important about a
new topic.
*Quantitative* info gathering is to do deeper mass-data research into
*pre-defined* topics once the important criteria in the issue have been
identified.

e.g. Why do people like to dance?

Firstly, *qualitative* info (interviews, observation) is gathered... e.g.

80% of people interviewed said they want to attract a mate.
10% said they wanted to lose weight.
5% said they were too drunk to know what they were doing.
3% said it allowed them to express their 'inner hippy'.
2% were incoherent.

... then more focused *quantitative* (surveys, questionnaires) research can
be undertaken.

e.g.

- On a scale of 0 (never) to 5 (every time) how often do you dance to
attract a mate? [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
- How important is dancing to you to lose weight? [Not at all?] [Somewhat?]
[A lot?]
- Can you remember when you last danced? [In a blurry fashion?] [Who are
you and why are you asking questions?] [I'm drunk. Want to dance?]
- Are you a hippy? [Tangerine, man] [Whoa! Lights!]
- Are you incoherent? [Boolean!] [Did you know *all* fish are Roman
Catholic?] [Bookshelf, obviously!]

Data gathering is hard.

<ark
(How I type my name 70% of the time... now 71%)

On 17 May 2017 at 15:52, Robert Hind <robert at yinnar.com> wrote:

> Thanks for pointing out possible difficulties Mark :-)
>
> This does explain why professional question askers always ask tightly
> structured questions with a limited range of answers - effectively you do
> your codifying beforehand.
>
> Robert Hind
> Ex Traralgon and Ashwood
> Retired
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:informatics-bounces@
> edulists.com.au] *On Behalf Of *Mark
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 17 May 2017 3:10 PM
> *To:* Year 12 VCE Informatics Teachers' Mailing List
> *Subject:* Re: [Informatics] Codifying Data
>
>
> On 17 May 2017 at 14:25, Robert Hind <robert at yinnar.com> wrote:
>
>> SupaCreme Strawberry Delight ice-cream?" You examine all your responses
>> and find they go all the way from
>>
>> It made me vomit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - to - - - - - - - - - - - -
>> - I have never tasted anything so delicious
>>
>
> And the coding problem arises when a respondent says, "I had never tasted
> anything so delicious as that SupaCreme Strawberry Delight ice-cream, but
> then it made me vomit."
>
> Coding is hard.
>
> P.S. The verb should be "encoding" rather than "coding". But never mind.
> The study design rulez.
>
> --
>
> Mark Kelly
>
> mark at vceit.com
> http://vceit.com
>
> Powered by *SupaCreme Strawberry Vomit ice-cream**.*
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com
http://vceit.com

Powered by *closed questions.*

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