From ERIAL Toolkit:
"The development of the research question begins with clarifying what you know and what you do not know. We suggest, as a first step, brainstorming research questions with your research team.
Activity: Brainstorming Research Questions
On a section of blackboard or piece of large tablet paper, draw a vertical line down the middle. On the left side, brainstorm research questions. What do you want to know about students? About faculty? About library facilities? Try not to censor ideas of what is interesting. On the right side, come up with provisional answers to those questions. These are your working hypotheses of what is happening. It is fine at this point to recognize that you do not necessarily know the answers, but it is helpful to begin to clarify what you think you know, and to write it down."
As we study users to understand how they collaborate on research/study and what needs they have:
What Do We Want To Know? |
What Might The Answers Be? |
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What tools and processes are they already using (generally and in the Bissett Space in particular)? |
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What do they need that they don't have or what problems do they encounter (generally and in the Bissett Space in particular)? |
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How do they like to collaborate or how would they like to collaborate in an ideal world? |
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What kind of space or environment do they prefer (furniture, tools, noise level, light, color, etc)? |
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Where do they look for help and what do they need help with? |
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What kinds of group projects are they doing and for which classes? |
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Are they using mobile devices for their research? If so, which ones and how and why? |
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When are they studying together and why? In what configurations (mostly group? individual? how many?)? |
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What kinds of spaces do they gravitate toward and why? What kinds of spaces do they feel are missing? |
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