Ingeniero Informático

On the usage of Qualitative Methods in ICT Research
Jos´ Miguel Gim´ nez Garc´a e e ı
Master de Investigacin en TIC E.T.S. de Ingenier´a en Telecomunicaciones ı Valladolid (Spain) Email: josemiguel.gimenez@alumnos.uva.es

Gabriel Ramos Llord´ n e
Master de Investigacin en TIC E.T.S. de Ingenier´a en Telecomunicaciones ı Valladolid (Spain) Email: gabriel.ramos@alumnos.uva.esAbstract—Qualitative methods are those characterized by a descriptive and emergent process such as interviews, questionnaires, documents, text and researcher impressions. Qualitative research questions are broadly defined and they are refined during the research [1]. The results of related research highly depends on research view and interpretation. This is totally contrary to quantitative approach, whereobjetivity, neutrality and repetibility are expected to achieve by means of variables, test, theoretical models, etc.

I. I NTRODUCTION Qualitative methods are those characterized by a descriptive and emergent processes. Some examples of these methods are interviews, questionnaires, documents, text and researcher impressions. Qualitative research questions are broadly defined and they are refined duringthe research [1]. Moreover, results of related research highly depends on research viewer and interpretation. This is totally contrary to quantitative approach, where objetivity, neutrality and repetibility are expected to achieve by means of variables, test, theoretical models, etc. Classical science such as physics, chemistry or biology have been used qualitative methods. The main purpose of thesemethods is the study of human beings cases so they play an important role in the social sciences research [1]. As a result, multidisciplinary fields in Information and Communication Techonologies (ICT) such as Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), which include social and educative aspects, use this type of approach among others [2]. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is anothermultidisciplinary field where qualitative methods are used [3]. Nevertheless, there are doubts about the rigor of qualitative methods in scientific community [4]. Consecuently, many young researchers doubt about the usefulness of this methods in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) [5]. Some authors try to argue about the adecuacy of qualitative methods to some fields in ICT. In relation to thevalidity, qualitative researches claim that they have procedures for attaining it, but they are simply different to the quantitative ones [5] so the main critics of quantitative research rigor could be a misunderstanding in the procedures. In [5], it is stated the clear usage of qualitative research in ICT field because the theories developed in social scences fit the human elements

component ofthe ICT field. In [6], a review of qualitative research methods in Information System (IS) research is included. Moreover, it is claimed that qualitative methods are significant in IS because they are capable of capturing and explaining the interaction between social organization and IS. The suitability of qualitative research in computer science education is supported in [7]. In this paper, a dialogbetween a reader who is skeptical about qualitative methods and the author is presented. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the usage of this methods in ICT research. To the best of our knowledge, there is no paper who tries to give empirical arguments to support the necessity of learning qualitative research methods providing relations to some specific areas of ICT. The purpose ofour paper is to show the first step of a research process which aims at providing some insights into the relevance of qualitative research in ICT and also relate the usage to some specific research fields. The whole inquiry process consist of three different steps which are closely related and allow to takle the objetive stated before. Particularly, first step is based on a quantitative approach...