Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2019 | Page 31

Community Engagement in Higher Ed
Tiered collaborative classroom at Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center, Purdue University
(above) YMCA mobile app survey in Typeform.
(left) Data analytics of survey responses in
Qualtrics indicating mode of response over time.
Website image from product site.
Methods
POE incorporates qualitative and
quantitative techniques. Feedback from
the occupants through user interviews or
surveys is primary. The rapidly growing
field of consumer social sciences, human
research surveys, applied statistics and
data analysis support market projections
for product sales. More recently, the
application has extended to the use of
environments. Fortunately, structured
software and templates exist with sim-
plified interfaces to collect qualitative or
‘soft’ data and are available on a mobile
device. Examples include Typeform and
Qualtrics. These software applications
incorporate icons, analytics tools and data
visualizers to present content and inter-
pret results in a graphical format.
Occupant feedback is interpreted
by layering in quantitative or ‘hard’
data such as environmental monitoring,
sensors or data loggers. Correlation
opportunities exist in the association
of multiple data collection methods.
For example, GPS navigation apps like
Waze combine multiple data types:
traffic sensor data, smartphone speed,
and crowd-sourced driver responses to
optimize navigation and find the fastest
route home. The mixed methods com-
bination of qualitative and quantitative
data is integral to diagnose an observa-
tion about a particular environmental
condition for insight into potential
design solutions.
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