Ethnographic research is a qualitative research method that involves observing participants in their real-time environment, focusing on the ‘why’ and ‘how.’ It has long been one of the most important anthropological tools, adding significant value when researchers seek to gain a deeper understanding of a problem or the people involved. Recently, ethnography has become essential for achieving user-centered design, as it illuminates the audience and the context in which a product or service is used.
When researchers understand the audience in their typical environment, they can better assess the usability of a product or service from a specific cultural context. Ethnography-based qualitative research provides insights into people’s culture, issues, attitudes, behaviors, expectations, values, motivations, and goals. This type of research often yields personas that help researchers and designers think from the audience’s perspective and lay the groundwork for quantitative studies.
A powerful investigative tool, ethnographic research is also valuable in ‘learning and development.’ The mode of delivering a learning solution can be determined only if the learning designer has a thorough understanding of the audience’s environment, needs, skillset, training gaps, immediacy of the learning need, and the intended behavioral impact triggered by the learning solution.
Ethnography is typically a detailed, long-term study and is not widely preferred within the domain of learning design. However, a carefully structured ethnographic research project can be completed in a matter of days or weeks. This is called ‘Rapid Ethnography.’
In the context of learning design, ethnography contributes to:
- Understanding the audience’s challenges
- Mapping challenges to learning needs
- Measuring the effectiveness of existing learning solutions
- Gauging the impact on the audience
- Identifying the best modality to deliver the learning solution
- Structuring the learning material
Learning solutions are generally identified as classroom training sessions, e-learning, blended learning, and flipped classroom sessions.
Why and how is ethnography used?
Ethnography is not conducted with a definite outcome in mind, although researchers can confine the scope of the research based on their needs. Ideally, ethnography is performed at the beginning of a project using one or more of the following methods:
- Non-participant observation
- Participant observation
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Surveys
During non-participant observation, researchers observe participants’ activities and behaviors in their working environment while they perform their everyday tasks. In participant observation, researchers take part in the activity they are observing, helping them understand the issues that arise in a particular environment and identify their sources. Researchers also conduct semi-formal and formal interviews to gain better insight and information that reinforce their understanding. If additional information or validation of their observations is needed, they conduct surveys and focus group discussions to extract as much information as possible.
Researchers analyze the data and collate it based on the need for training and the levels of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. If more information is required, they conduct interviews with specific questions.
Let us look at the example of ethnographic research in the learning context here: https://murali-dharan.com/sample-5/