quantitative vs qualitative research

Today’s discussion started off reviewing two different types of research approaches. There is no doubt that I believe I will be using both these approaches in my project.

The two different types of research categories a numerical and an open-ended collection of data. This is the way I have taken this on board and it has definitely helped me visualize the approach I wish to take.

Quantitative Research
Quantitative research gathers data in numerical form, which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement.  This type of data can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data.

Qualitative Research
Qualitative research gathers information that is not in numerical form.  For example, diary accounts, open-ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and unstructured observations. Qualitative data is typically descriptive data and as such is harder to analyze than quantitative data.