Online Discussion Boards

What is a Moderated Online Discussion Board?

Our moderated online discussions (AKA a private and secure online forum, online bulletin board, online board) are set up on a well-established platform. Only participants invited to participate, login to respond to set open text questions and single or multiple-choice polls.

Once they comment on a topic, we encourage participants to comment and engage with other participant's earlier posts and illustrate their viewpoint by uploading documents, screenshots or images.

Interactive tools such as heat maps and white boards, add to the level of interest and engagement of participants.

We adhere to a structured discussion guide and clients have the option to login to observe the discussion.

We actively moderate our discussions to take advantage of the opportunity to seek clarification by probing and questioning responses as well as reinforcing participant's efforts. Each participant knows they are engaging with a real moderator who will read what they have written, comment and when required ask for additional information to flesh out a response.

Our discussions typically run over a period of 3 days with participants, who meet the required demographics and criteria, logging in to the discussion on their PCs, tablets, iPads or phones from anywhere and at any time during the research period. To receive more information and an Online Discussion Board flyer email rachel@tsmr.co.nz

The Benefits of Online Discussion:

It is easy to understand why our online discussion methodology is increasing in popularity with benefits such as:

High Quality and Quantity of Output:

• High-quality, actionable insights in terms of relevance, depth and integrity.
• Quality output containing rich verbatim quotations.
  
• Anonymity which encourages more open and honest feedback.
  
• Every participant responds to every question so less assertive people have a voice and their views are not overshadowed or dominated by more assertive individuals.
  
• Fast turnaround of reporting with highly accurate verbatim transcripts immediately available.
  

Improved Quality of Discussion

• Heightened quality engagement as written responses provide time to reflect and synthesise information and the 3 day research period gives time to interact with participants and explore topics thoroughly.
• Increased input from each participant with each individual contributing a total of 1 - 3 hours compared to an average 15 minutes verbal participation in a 2 hour face-to-face focus group with 8 participants.
  
• Opportunity for our moderator to actively engage with each participant to probe their responses to flesh out valuable information.
  
• Reduced domination and influence - To mitigate against ‘group think’ and bias, all comments in an online forum can be ‘hidden’ until a participant has commented on the topic.
  
• Blend of qualitative (gain insight from discussion) and quantitative (number crunching to identify patterns) with the inclusion of single and multiple-choice polls.
  
• Increased quantity of responses as each participant provides their feedback to every question.
  
• Interactive and engaging with the inclusion of visual aid tools such as heat maps, white boards and images.
  

Increased Participant Reach:

• Appeal to all demographic segments including those often hard to involve in focus groups – Youth, professionals, management, time-pushed busy people, males and various ethnic groups.
• No geographic constraints with a national reach including those geographically harder to reach i.e. rural consumers.
  
• Preferred online environment as it provides a familiar and comfortable space to share thoughts and opinions.
  
• Undoubtedly increased convenience for participants being able to login from anywhere at any time during the 3 day research period.
  

How Online Discussions Work:

• We work with our clients to identify the topics and questions to be asked in order to meet their research objectives.
• Our moderator creates a structured discussion guide and sets up the questions for the private online discussion.
  
• Questions can be scheduled to be released over the period of the discussion as topics evolve.
  
• We use the same screening procedures as focus groups to recruit participants and they each receive private and protected access.
  
• Participants login to respond to questions, answer single or multi-choice polls and join open discussion topics.
  
• Each participant must provide input on every topic resulting in a rich in-depth discussion.
  
• It is similar to a focus group concept but procedure-wise comparable to commenting on Facebook or LinkedIn. Once a participant responds to a question they can view other participant's posts and they are then encouraged to respond to these posts and interact and engage with other participants.
  
• Our moderator actively interacts with each participant, reinforcing their efforts and probing and questioning their responses.
  
• Participants log in each day to read and respond to questions and comments by other participants and the moderator.
  
• Participants can upload documents, screenshots or images to illustrate their viewpoints.
  
• Clients can observe the online discussion.
  
• A full transcript of the discussion is available.
  

How Online Discussions Work in Pictures:

Procedure-wise posting and commenting is similar to the concept of Facebook and LinkedIn although the project is completed on our private and secure online discussion platform.
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Groups of questions can be scheduled to be released throughout the research project:
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Single or multiple-choice polls provide quantitative (numerical data) responses to key questions in order to support the free text discussion:
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Once a poll is answered, there is the option to display the current poll results to date, on the participant's screen:
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For more information about running an online discussion board contact Rachel today rachel@tsmr.co.nz

‍Download Trailblazer Research Online Discussion Flyer