The StudentSurvey.ie Steering Group is pleased to publish the results of five research projects analysing the qualitative data generated by the free-text response questions in StudentSurvey.ie and PGR StudentSurvey.ie.
These results are the first of their kind for StudentSurvey.ie and PGR StudentSurvey.ie and we hope they are the first of many research projects involving the qualitative results of these surveys.
Social media takeover!
To celebrate the release of these results, the project teams who analysed the qualitative data from StudentSurvey.ie and PGR StudentSurvey.ie are doing a Social Media Takeover of the StudentSurvey.ie Twitter and Instagram every Wednesday for the next few weeks. We hope you will engage with them, ask lots of questions and share your thoughts with the research teams, the followers of the StudentSurvey.ie Twitter and Instagram and your own followers.
Five projects were funded by research bursaries offered by StudentSurvey.ie in October 2020. The aim of the bursary awards was to promote greater ownership and encourage wider use of the StudentSurvey.ie and PGR StudentSurvey.ie data. Proposals for the analysis of the qualitative data emerging from StudentSurvey.ie and PGR StudentSurvey.ie were invited from members of the research community within the participating institutions, as well as commercial data analysis companies. The projects were completed in May 2021.
Each project is an independent project undertaken by qualified and experienced researchers on behalf of StudentSurvey.ie. Each project took a unique approach. Some projects involved analysis of all the qualitative data for a given year(s), and some homed in on a subset of the data. Some undertook a qualitative methodology, while others applied quantitative methods to qualitative data. The commonalities between all five projects are that they all utilised well-grounded methodologies, offer mechanisms for replication of the analysis in future years, and are innovative and authentic.
PLUS! There is a spot prize of a €20 Me2You card or a €20 Gifty card during every takeover up for grabs for students who engage with the report writers!
Report 1 - Insight Statistical Consulting
To get us started with the results is the report from Insight Statistical Consulting. These results are based on their analysis of all the qualitative data for StudentSurvey.ie 2016-2020. A mammoth task!
Their research project demonstrated the utility of using computer-assisted analytical techniques to process data which other researchers would have great difficulty in processing and evaluating due to the scale of the material involved. Furthermore, this research provided a framework for further research to build upon.
Their analysis is based upon the open-source statistical software R and its graphical interface R Studio, along with a suite of R packages and because of this, all of the techniques utilised within the report are replicable, and their coding framework and code can be extended for further research within the current corpus or further iterations of the Irish Survey of Student Engagement.
Download the Insight Statistical Analysis report HERE.
Unfortunately, the authors of this report cannot join us for the social media takeover, but are happy to respond to any questions sent to them via the StudentSurvey.ie Project Manager. Email your question to info@studentsurvey.ie or use any of the social media channels listed here.
You can find more information about Insight and the work they do here.
