The significant part of having a limited budget is seeking ways to do things for free. And I’ve found some nifty research tools we can use to perform free surveys, focus groups, and even interviews. Are we as excited as I am? If not, we will learn the power these tools offer for academic and career success!
First, I discovered a miracle: PSPP. It’s the free, open-source version of SPSS, statistical analysis software for surveys. That means that master’s or doctorate students, even undergrads, can conduct survey research with this software at no fee.
Survey Monkey integrates with SPSS, and the Survey Monkey CSV file can be uploaded into PSPP, too. SPSS will take our data and give us statistical measures and reports. Oh, and I just discovered that a free Google Form is sufficient for capturing survey data to import into PSPP. We are in luck, as conducting academic or commercial research for free is ideal.
I worked with SPSS statistical data in my former career. I took the SPSS survey reports and created PowerPoint presentations of the charts for governmental clients. I’d get a report from SPSS of all the survey data and compile each survey question into an appropriate, color-branded chart. And I’d add analyses and recommendations. It was the most exciting work I have ever done (outside of my prior entrepreneurial marketing role, where I got to do some of everything). I couldn’t wait to see the patterns emerge. It was like discovering a secret of the universe.
I also desperately want to design and host a focus group, but now I can do it with Microsoft Teams or Zoom. I hosted webinars on Teams, which are best done with two monitors and a teleprompter that incorporates a script on one monitor. A focus group should have 6 to 10 people and be 1 to 2 hours long, and it should probe for thoughts, feelings, impressions, and ideas. It is ideally the starting point of our research, often followed by a quantitative survey. Is that exciting to all of us? If it is or isn’t now, it’ll be a source of convenience when we reach graduate studies or do research at the undergrad level.
I attended a focus group conducted by the Chapter’s bookstore and got paid $200, which I spent on books. I was the expert book reader in the focus group because I couldn’t work for a decade, so I spent all my time reading books in bookstores and at home. I read from about noon to 1 in the morning daily, nonstop. The focus group was exciting, and I felt like the book maestro, albeit unemployed. I longed to design and host a focus group one day. We all must host a focus group to experience the finer things of life. A taste for focus groups, not wine, is what to cultivate in life.
I didn’t conduct focus groups at the market research firm I worked for because I traveled to work in dress slacks on a bicycle, and my bike chewed up all my pant legs and ripped them to shreds, so I didn’t look professional by the time I arrived at the office. And then I had nothing to wear. The key was to get bicycle pants or shorts and pack the suit in a backpack. But, oh, I dreamed every day of hosting a focus group. I’ll see if I can do some on UpWork. What fun it would be! We can record it on Zoom or Teams and upload it into transcription software, such as Kapwing, which will generate an instant transcript that we can clean up and use for developing themes and citations. We can take that transcript and upload it into a free online word cloud generator to see immediate vital themes. Are we feeling the bliss yet? One day, we academics indeed may!
I just downloaded PSPP, and it’s thrilling. It looks plain but is almost exactly the same as SPSS. And now, I’ve discovered the free online version of NVIVO. NVIVO is a complex but comprehensive, expensive software program for qualitative analysis of documents, interviews, and focus groups. This free version, called Taguette, is dumbed-down and simple. I’m going to use it tonight! I just tried it, and it didn’t disappoint.
That said, we can now conduct our academic research for free, research business viability for free, and do much more. Free tools develop potent skills in us. Want to make a billion dollars one day? Each skill we learn is a stepping stone to our unstoppable goals! Every skill skyrockets us toward our most significant achievements, although honestly, the most important achievements can be found in a single kind word or thoughtful gesture!