A Software Solution to Facilitate Moderation, Observation and Analysis in a Focused Group Interview (FGI)

Abstract

Focus group interview (FGI) is an effective qualitative data collection method in Educational Technology Research. The three important operations associated with any FGI are moderation, observation, and, analysis. With traditional pen and paper based approaches, the execution of these operations are highly tedious. In this paper we present scientifically gathered user requirement specifications to achieve a software solution for this problem. We have employed an iterative requirement gathering methodology to identify a comprehensive list of challenges faced by researchers during FGI. We also present a validated set of interface features that should be able to address all those challenges to a large extent.