Higher Education During COVID-19: Q Methodology Studies Online

What is it about?

Q methodology [Q] offers a scientific way to study subjectivity, meaning people’s viewpoints about a topic. The underlying assumption of Q is that when people share an experience, they do not necessarily form the same viewpoint about that experience. This is different from the use of Likert-scale surveys that report results using aggregate (averages) scores for responses to statements. Instead, Q allows the researcher to differentiate and describe the divergent viewpoints that exist about a topic. During its beginning half-century, Q was labor intensive: cards with statements to sort had to be created, sort data entered by hand, analyses done through hand-calculations. The introduction of computers facilitated the analyses stage of Q, but the Q-sort process remained hands-on without the aid of technology until relatively recently, especially considering Q’s creation in 1935. Here, I use a specific online Q study, where the purpose was to ascertain the multiple, divergent viewpoints about faculty moving their face-to-face [F2F] courses online in a form of emergency remote instruction, due to the pandemic, to illustrate how to perform a Q study online. The online data collection and analysis tools make doing Q studies more accessible to undergraduates and post-graduate students. How Q findings can provide important insights related to subjectivity and, therefore, behaviour, is also discussed.

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Why is it important?

SAGE Research Methods Cases are used for teaching and learning social science research methods in more than 350 institutions worldwide.