Online Qual Boards
Online Qual Boards
In many ways, online qual boards go beyond the benefits of traditional qualitative research. They function in some ways like an online focus group, where participants log into the group from home and participate in a discussion either in an audio or written format. But online qual boards include a larger number of respondents (typically about 25-30), and respondents participate in the group over a 3- to 4-day period. Participants are typically asked to log in twice a day to answer questions, respond to other participants’ posts, upload images, diary entries, or other media, and bring in, view, and respond to stimuli. Online qual boards allow for an iterative process, where participants respond to the discussion topics and stimuli over a short period of time. Individual comments can be probed one-on-one using this methodology, while we can also have participants react to each other’s statements or hold a mock debate.