Best Practices for Synchronous Online Focus Groups

Abstract

With continuous technological improvements, online data collection has become an expanding and valuable field in social sciences. Online focus groups are now increasingly used to complement or even replace face-to-face research interactions with technologically mediated ones. When referring to online focus group, we aim for a computer mediated ‘communication event’ (Terrance et al., Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, 1993: 53) that is similar to an offline group, by attempting to mimic a face-to-face interaction format online. The main characteristic of online focus group, although many other aspects are very similar or equal to face-to-face groups, is the online venue which calls for different skills from the researcher and participants. Both are expected to have at least some level of computer literacy (Lobe 2008). When conducting online focus groups, there are some conceptual, practical and technological issues to be considered. In this chapter, I first present the temporal structure and the forms of synchronous online focus groups. Then, I consider the issues in Computer Medicated Communication (CMC) interaction as the salient feature of successful online focus groups. Following, I discuss several conceptual, practical and technological concerns, including: recruitment issues, research design issues, moderating issues and ethical issues. The chapter draws on knowledge and insights gathered via three sets of online focus groups that I have conducted personally or have been actively involved as a mentor: a set of more than 50 synchronous focus groups conducted via online messaging tools; a set of 10 audio focus groups conducted via the Skype application; and, a set of 15 video focus groups, conducted via the ZOOM conferencing tool.