When carrying out a research of any sort it is very important to chose the best data collection

method that best suits the kind of research you are undertaking. This essay is going to describe
three methods of primary data collection which the university can use to gather information
when carrying out a quantitative research to determine public perceptions of the academic
programs they have introduced in their subsidiary campuses around the country. And lastly this
essay will also outline the strengths and limitations of each approach suggested in the essay.

Data that can be counted or expressed in numerical’s constitute the quantitative data. It is
commonly used to study the events or levels of concurrence. And is collected through a
structured questionnaire asking questions starting with “how much” or “how many.” As the
quantitative data is numerical, it represents both definitive and objective data. Furthermore,
quantitative information is much sorted for statistical and mathematical analysis, making it
possible to illustrate it in the form of charts and graphs.  

The following are data collection methods that can be used in a quantitative research ;

The first one is Interviews. Interviewing people is a standard method used for data collection.
However, the interviews conducted to collect quantitative data are more structured, wherein the
researchers ask only a standard set of questionnaires and nothing more than that. There are three
major types of interviews conducted for data collection and these are; Telephone interviews,
Face-to-face interviews and Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI).

The interview is a meeting between an interviewer and interviewee.

Strengths of interviews

One good thing about interviews is that interviews are accurate screening. The interviewee can’t
provide false information such as gender, age, or race.

Another thing is that the interviewer can capture raw emotions, tone, voice, and word choices to
gain a deeper understanding. Interviewers can also ask follow-up questions and require
additional information to understand attitudes, motivations, etc
Despite having these strengths, an interview also has its limitations. And these are as follows;
High costs as this method require a staff of people to perform the interview, the quality of the
collected data depends on the ability of the interviewer to gather data well. And it is also a time-
consuming process that involves transcription, organization, reporting, etc

The second method is surveys/ questionnairs. Surveys or questionnaires created using online
survey software are playing a pivotal role in online data collection be is quantitative or
qualitative research. The surveys are designed in a manner to legitimize the behavior and trust of
the respondents. More often, checklists and rating scale type of questions make the bulk of
quantitative surveys as it helps in simplifying and quantifying the attitude or behavior of the
respondents. The surveys and questionaires can either be done online or on hard copy. They are
used to ask respondents a set of questions (both types – open- and closed-ended questions). Over
the past decade, the use of online surveys has skyrocketed.

The strengths of survey or questionnaires is that using this method makes it very easy to collect
data. A survey with a hundred or more respondents can be conducted fast. Another thing is that,
another point is that surveys are easily accessible and can be deployed via many online channels
like web, mobile, email, etc.

Surveys or questionnaires are also of low price compared to other methods. They are easy to
analyze and present with different data visualization types. Also a wide range of data types can
be collected such as attitudes, opinions, values, etc.

The limitations of this method is Survey fraud. Answers may not be honest. There are people
who answer online surveys just to receive a promised reward. Since the respondents are
supposed to provide answers to the questionnairs or surveys themselves one limitation in using
this method of data collection is that many questions might be left unanswered and participants
may not stay fully engaged to the end. Another limitation is that without someone to explain,
participants may have different interpretations of your questions. The last limitation is that this
method cannot fully capture emotions and feelings of the respondents.

Observation is the last method to be described. As the name suggests, it is a pretty simple and
straightforward method of collecting quantitative data. In this method, researchers collect
quantitative data through systematic observations by using techniques like counting the number
of people present at the specific event at a particular time and a particular venue or number of
people attending the event in a designated place. More often, for quantitative data collection, the
researchers have a naturalistic observation approach that needs keen observation skills and
senses for getting the numerical data about the “what” and not about “why” and ”how.” 
Naturalistic observation is used to collect both types of data; qualitative and quantitative.
However, structured observation is more used to collect quantitative rather than qualitative data. 

In Structured observation the researcher has to make careful observations of one or more specific
behaviors in a more comprehensive or structured setting compared to naturalistic or participant
observation. In a structured observation, the researchers, rather than observing everything, focus
only on very specific behaviors of interest. It allows them to quantify the behaviors they are
observing. When the observations require a judgment on the part of the observers – it is often
described as coding, which requires a clearly defining a set of target behaviors. 

Strengths of the observation method are; Simple to collect data. Observation does not require
tech skills of the researcher. Allows for a detailed description of behaviors, intentions, and
events. Greater accuracy and data quality. The observer can view participants in their natural
environment and directly check their behavior. Doesn’t depend on people’s willingness to report.
Some respondents don’t want to speak about themselves or don’t have time for that.

The limitations are; one cannot study attitudes and opinions by observing. Can take a lot of time
if the observer has to wait for a particular event to happen. A high potential for observer’s
subjective bias. The personal view of the observer can be an obstacle to making valid
conclusions. Expensive method. It requires a high cost, effort, and plenty of time. Situations of
the past cannot be studied.

In conclusion the method data collection to be used in research mainly depends on the type of
research to be used. The are so many methods of data collection in research, this essay on
focused the the three methods of data collection that can be used at the university when doing a
quantitative research. The methods described are; surveys or questionaires, observation method
and interviews.