Data Research and Analysis
Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of interest, in an established systematic fashion. Data collection is one of the most important stages in conducting a research. You can have the best research design in the world but if you cannot collect the required data you will be not be able to complete your project. Data collection is a very demanding job which needs thorough planning, hard work, patience, perseverance and more to be able to complete the task successfully. Data collection starts with determining what kind of data required followed by the selection of a sample from a certain population. After that, you need to use a certain instrument to collect the data from the selected sample.
There are two types of data, Qualitative and Quantitative.
Qualitative data are mostly non-numerical and usually descriptive or nominal in nature. This means the data collected are in the form of words and sentences.
Qualitative data collection methods play an important role in impact evaluation by providing information useful to understand the processes behind observed results and assess changes in people’s perceptions of their well-being.
Quantitative data is numerical in nature and can be mathematically computed. Quantitative data measure uses different scales, which can be classified as nominal scale, ordinal scale, interval scale and ratio scale. Often (not always), such data includes measurements of something.
One more method is used to collect data is known as Mixed Methods: Mixed methods approach as design, combining both qualitative and quantitative research data, techniques and methods within a single research framework. Mixed methods approaches may mean a number of things, i.e. a number of different types of methods in a study or at different points within a study or using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods.