03/08/2020 – 07/08/2020
This week we have completed our interviews with students. All together we completed a total of 15 interviews between the three of us. As many of the interviews covered many diagnoses, one thing we noted was how common comorbidities were across the three conditions. Following completion of our interviews, we began the transcribing process. We did not anticipate how long this would take us. We attempted to use the word ‘Dictate’ function to speed up the process, however this had poor accuracy and led to many errors in the text. This meant we had to listen to the interviews multiple times to correct these errors. We estimated that for every 10 minutes of audio, it took an hour to transcribe! In hindsight we should have researched auto-transcribing software, as this would have given us more time for more interviews and the analysis process as well.
We met with one of our supervisors to learn about the thematic analysis process. Before this meeting we had already started thematic analysis, however we had not fully understood each of the phases of the four-step process. We think we may have rushed ahead due to the time restrictions of the project, as there is a lot to do with only one week left. Our supervisor highlighted the importance of becoming familiar with and initially coding the data, before grouping them into themes. We now understand that the process requires time to conduct high quality analysis. We each went through five of the interview transcripts to create initial codes, which we will peer review next week.
On the Wednesday of this week, we attended the UROP poster workshop in which we learnt about the design and content of our posters. We were shown previous examples, to show us what works and does not work. We were made aware that the format of the research showcase where we present our posters will work differently this year due to Coronavirus. We have been asked to provide the poster with a six-minute screencast to explain our projects and findings. We will each be creating our own poster tailored towards each of the conditions, however there will be parts which overlap, such as the methods and some of the findings.
While we were conducting and transcribing our interviews, we left the survey running to gain more responses. Therefore, this week we also promoted the survey again across the different social media channels. This was successful as we reached the 100 mark for responses. The proportions of respondents with each of the conditions matches the prevalence rates and our expectations, therefore we feel that this survey is reflective of the University population.
As we approach the end of the project, we have found the workload overwhelming. However, we are managing this by planning a schedule and working through it and prioritising our time. We look forward to bringing our findings together next week and presenting them in a visual thematic map.
Post written by: Bryony, Charis and Michelle