Protocols for Conducting Online Focus Groups and Interviews

Advances in web conferencing technology make it possible to conduct online focus groups and individual interviews, resulting in transcripts that can be immediately entered into data analysis software and eliminating the hassles and costs associated with verbal recordings and transcription. This presentation identifies differences between online and offline recruitment, consent, and data collection protocols and provides a recorded example of de-identified data from the Sexually Explicit Media Study. Participants will be able to identify the benefits and challenges to online qualitative data collection and to articulate situations in which online qualitative data collection methods are preferable to traditional offline methods.