Designing Qualitative Research Projects

This course provides an overview of qualitative research methods and their application in the field of Information Systems (IS). The course begins with an introduction to the basic principles and alternatives of conducting qualitative research. It then provides deeper insights into different types of qualitative research in terms of their epistemological, ontological, and methodological stance. For each stance, the underlying principles will be discussed with illustrative examples. The course is taught in a seminar style, requiring students to prepare readings before class and discuss them in class. Student presentations will help elicit the strengths and weaknesses of different qualitative methods in published research. Overall, the course is designed to be interactive. For a final paper, the students illustrate the application of particular methods to design their own qualitative research study.

Learning outcomes: After completing the course, students

• have gained an overview of the common qualitative methods in IS research
• know quality criteria and corresponding means to improve qualitative research designs
• are able to prepare, plan, and execute own qualitative research endeavors.