The Methodology That Uses in Any Research - Thesis Example

The researcher’s aim was to identify and explain the views, opinions and experiences of participants in distance learning. This clearly indicates that statistical information was not of any use and as a result, the qualitative research approach was found to be the most appropriate. The researcher needed an approach whose primary value would be to bring a clear and complete understanding of experiences by Saudi females in distance learning programs and the challenges they experience in pursuing further education.

She intended to find out whether participants were actually satisfied. As such, the only applicable approach was the qualitative research approach. Tewksbury (2009) stipulates that the greatest advantage of qualitative research approaches lies in their ability to predict the future. There are different methods applicable in collecting qualitative data. For this research, the most appropriate was found to be face-to-face interviews. This is because the researcher intended to find out the views and experiences of the participants with regard to distance learning.

The major advantage of conducting face-to-face interviews is that the research gets to learn what the participants know, how they see things and an explanation of the knowledge held (Bruce, 2007). According to Kvale, interviews offer researchers an opportunity to understand the real meaning of what the interviewee says (Kvale, 2009). This is because participants are given an opportunity to present their views, perceptions and beliefs regarding the issue under investigation. Radnor (2002) further explains that research interviews are like a conversation between two people instigated by the interviewer for the sole rationale of gaining access to information that is relevant to the research (Radnor, 2002).

The researcher is in a position to guide participants in answering the questions thereby ensuring that only relevant data is provided. As such, they were the most appropriate for the researcher as she had only 30 minutes to collect information from each participant.