Hello again. You might be wondering what is the moderator guide? Well, if an orchestra wants to play a song, they need sheet music, right? They follow the sheet music to get from the beginning to the end. That's the rule of the moderator guide. It brings you from the introduction of the focus group to the final question. A moderator guide may also be called the discussion guide. If you're creating it for an one on one interview, it's called an interview guide. This lesson will focus on the moderator guide, which is a key part of your course project. You already learned much of what will go into it. So no worries, you're ahead of the game. After this lesson, you will be able to describe how to create a moderator guide with all the necessary components. Like defining rules of participation, confidentiality and report writing that apply to key informants and focus groups. You should be able to set up the document headings to get started composing your moderator guide for your course project. So let's get started. There are several essential component parts to a moderator guide. There are, the brief synopsis of the project, the rules about the focus group, an explanation about confidentiality, introduction, general questions, probes for general questions, and then the wrap up. In the brief synopsis of the project you want to keep the description very general. You don't want to give out key information about the background of the project that could dissuade participants from providing their opinions. You also don't want to reveal exactly who has hired you to do the research. You will say your name, that you're an independent researcher hired to get sincere feedback about whatever the topic is. It might be immunizations, services for patients with AIDS, spine clinics, rice cakes, cell phones, you name it. You might provide just a little more detail about the project, and then say something like, you have been gathered here today to provide insight into what people think about the process of getting immunizations from local clinics. That's what goes into the brief synopsis, just basics. For example, as it relates to the business case scenario, you would want to tell participants that you've been hired by a cell phone company to help them design their newest cell phone. The company wants to find out what the important features should be included on this new cell phone to make it the most attractive of the newest and hottest phones on the market. Next is explaining the rules. It is very important to go over the rules of the focus group slowly. You want the group to remember that you expect a flow in the discussion. Tell the participants to enjoy their experience but that the project is important to your client. All participants must know about the boundaries they should follow in being a part of the group in answering questions. Here's how I recommend doing it. First, you discuss that you want to hear all their opinions but not all at the same time. You want people to respect each other and take turns. You want to make it clear that if people want to speak, they should speak amongst the entire group, not just to the person next to them or someone they may know in the group. Let them know it's okay to eat or drink during the group, but to get up before the group starts to get their plate of food and to stay seated during the group. Tell them how long the group will be and it's usually 90 minutes, and that they're expected to stay for the entire group meeting. If they have to use the facilities, suggest that they do so before the group starts. Remind them to turn off their cell phone. If they're on call like with physicians and they receive a page, they should take the call outside the room. Then let them note that they'll be paid after the group is finished. That covers setting the rules. An explanation of the confidentiality is an essential part of the moderator guide. You want participants to feel comfortable divulging private information, therefore confidentiality is key to explain. Participants need to know that the group will be audio and video taped. Make sure that they know it's just for convenience purposes, so you don't have to frantically write down every word of theirs. You want to make sure you get accurate information from what they have to say. Explain that you will have their recordings transcribed by an independent transcriptionist and that their identity will be kept confidential. You need to tell them that their responses will be combined with all the responses from all the focus groups and all the participants, so that there will be no identifying factors in the report. None of their names or likeness will be used. After the project introduction, rules of the focus group, and explanation about confidentiality, you will begin your group introduction. Usually you throw out a simple ice breaker to get things started. You as the moderator, are always the first person to introduce yourself. Each participant will have just their first name written on a table tent, facing the moderator. You will have your table tent with just your first name on it, facing the participants. Here's an example of an ice breaker. Let's go around the room, say you're first name, what you do for a living, and two things you love to do in your free time. So I might say, hello my name is Susan, I do market research, and I love to play tennis and go to the beach with my labrador. Makes sure that each person introduces themselves to make a chart on a piece of paper, sitting right in front of you, with a little bit of information about each participant so you can remember key items they've said. This comes in handy during the group. Then after you're done with the introduction, you would move on to the topics sections with questions and probes. The ice breaker is optional. All other components I've mentioned here are always included in the focus group and moderator guide. What I've explained here vary slightly for the in-person interview, with key informants or key opinion leaders. In those cases you would usually only brief them about the topic to be covered and explain confidentiality. You would not go into as many details about rules, about responding to questions. You would merely say feel free to answer the questions candidly, your opinion's very important to us. You would however explain about recording and transcription. That wraps up our lesson on designing a moderator guide. Now that you have completed this lesson you should be able to, describe how to create a moderator guide with all necessary component parts. Define rules of participation, confidentiality, and report writing that apply to key informants and focus groups in qualitative research. You should also be able to set up the document headings to get started composing your moderator guide for your course project.
