Lesson plan (supplement for teachers)

The following lesson plan was prepared for teachers of advanced secondary school students and university students alike.

The exercise will help students learn:

  1. how to conduct independent research;
  2. think critically about the social world;
  3. design, implement and interpret data using netnography.

Exercise 1: Is netnography for you?

Consider the checklist below to decide whether netnography is the right methodology for your research: 

If the answer is yes to each of the points above, netnography might be the right methodology for you.

Instructions

This task can be done fully online and thus particularly suitable for online education as well. Teachers are advised to spend at least one (or more) classes on discussing the foundations of netnographic research before they assign students their own research project. Teachers should also clearly define the timeframe of the study, which can be set from a few weeks of online observation to several months. It is important to keep in mind that the longer students engage in netnographic research, the more data they will amass, and hence the harder it may be for the to classify and analyze their data. It is then advisable that students start with a short, well-defined task, with a timeframe of research set at a few weeks.

Teachers may choose to specify any step of the research further, rather than giving choices to students. For younger students (at high school level) or for students with limited experience conducting their own research, it may be wise to give a clear methodological guidelines, such as: “Netnographic research should last for two weeks, starting at [specific date], during research, students are expected to write daily fieldnotes of one page, participate in at least one event of the online community they join, etc.” Teachers should highlight the importance of ethical considerations, point out relevant ethical boards, and if students are not familiar with research ethics, teachers should plan for an additional class time discussing research ethics.

Teachers are advised to ask their students to conduct passive netnography for the first time, as it will require students to only observe and not participate in any online activities while collecting data. For more advanced students, especially those who have experience with ethnography or netnography, active netnographic research may be possible, but only with appropriate ethical preparation (e.g., in case they join a group with members from at-risk or vulnerable groups). If students wish to work independently, the hints and results of the tasks should be of valuable resource for them. The tasks can be easily adapted to online education as well, since netnographic research is done via the Internet.

Having laid the foundation (instructing about netnographic research in general and ethical considerations), teachers can use the handout below to distribute to their students. The handout contains step-by-step questions and instructions for students to follow in order to facilitate their netnographic research. Teachers should also make themselves available to answer students’ concerns if needed. These tasks can be assigned to students as one assignment project that will stem over several months or an entire semester, or as separate tasks each week using class time to discuss progress and advise students collectively.

Exercise 2: Example of a research question

Example of a research question:

How does online sociability help in solving the most critical issue in your locality (district, town, region)?

Ideally, a research question is provocative and immediately arouses students’ interest. “The most critical issue” is a broad concept and students may be invited to interpret it as they wish. Let’s say one student might live in the suburbs and they decide to choose the lack of pedestrian walkways as a critical issue. Another student might live in the busy downtown area and find criminality as the most critical issue. Students can choose the location or teachers can limit it to district, city, region or even country or other factors. Importantly, students should be able to identify one such issue and have a quick justification why they deem that issue to be critical. With that, students should do either some research (literature review) or build on their own knowledge of their area (following local papers, participating in community events etc).

If students work on this module independently, they might want to choose a question that pertains to their own research or interests. For example, an undergraduate student will probably formulate a question that is pertinent to their BA thesis, a high school student may think of a question that is relevant for their assigned research projects. Netnography is an useful way to add first-hand data to the study, which can be entirely conducted online.

Task 1: Find any group of interest in social media (e.g., Facebook) and join that group.

  • Hint 1: Think about the nature of the issue you consider as the most critical – environmental, political, economic, social etc. This will determine what kind of groups you will look at.
  • Hint 2: Be prepared to disclose the purpose of you joining the group, which can be done through the group host who will share your message to all members or disclosed publicly to all group members (through a personal project website or a message, for example). Importantly, everyone in the group should understand what your purpose of joining the group is.
  • Hint 3: Be sure to consider the ethical considerations when joining the group. For that, consult with your teacher or your institution’s ethical board if necessary. Consider the characteristics of group members and if vulnerable groups or minors are present, take special ethical precautions (the Module on Research Ethics should also be of help. 

    Question

    Your answer

    What is the name of the group you joined?

     

    How did you introduce yourself and the purpose of you joining?

     

    Why did you choose to join this particular group?

     

    What are the characteristics of the group (number of members, open or closed, moderated or not, etc.)?

     

    Were there any challenges in joining this group?

     

Results of the task:

  • In answering the questions, students are consciously thinking about each stage of identifying a group to research.
  • Students must also be thoughtful about ethical implications when identifying the target group and planning out their research.
  • Students self-reflect on the challenges associated with the first task in their netnographic research.
  • Students should think about the identity, culture and values of the group that they are observing, which will be later discussed in Task 3.

Task 2: Delineate the forms of data collection and extent of participation.

  • Hint 1: Decide whether you want to participate in discussions and debates that happen among group members. Think about the added benefit of that.
  • Hint 2: Think about archiving some data that will be useful for your analysis. Create a clear mechanism (e.g., folders in your computer) for storing archived data.
  • Hint 3: Review the ethical considerations that are applicable for this task, such as whether and how it is possible to archive data if the group is private, how to anonymize archived data and alike.
  • Hint 4: Begin writing fieldnotes immediately upon joining the field site; decide how you want to structure your fieldnotes. (If more help is needed for fieldnotes writing, consult the Module on Ethnographic research in this Toolbox.) 

    Question

    Your answer

    Do you engage in discussions in the group? What may be the benefits of your participation (or lack thereof)

     

    What type of data is relevant for your research and how do you archive it?

     

    What type of fieldnotes are you generating (e.g., hand-written or typed) at what times (e.g., immediately after observation, during observation), etc.?

     

    Have you experienced any challenges at this stage of research?

     

Results of the task:

  • In answering the questions, students are consciously thinking about each stage of data collection and its implications for data interpretation.
  • Students continue consciously deliberating the ethical implications of data collection and data storing.
  • Students are encouraged to anticipate and reflect on their challenging while planning out and engaging in this stage of netnographic research.
  • At this stage, students should choose a research method as well, depending on the type (and amount of) data that was collected. Unless numerical data is collected, students will work with qualitative data analysis (such as content analysis, discourse analysis etc.). Further readings and resources on qualitative data analysis is included in the list of bibliography.

Task 3: Analyze your collected data

  • Hint 1: Limit your analysis to a specific timeframe or certain types of interactions, especially if you have amassed much data.
  • Hint 2: In answering some of the questions at this step, your answers about group characteristics from Task 1 should be helpful.
  • Hint 3: When choosing an appropriate research method, familiarize with the modules within Designing Research and Data analysis and interpretation themes within this Toolbox, which will be helpful in systematic and rigorous data analysis (e.g., relevant sections may be observations, interviews and fieldwork). 

    Question

    Your answer

    How would you describe the identity of the group you observed?

     

    What bonds the members together to form a community?

     

    What are the values of this group?

     

    What is the communication style among members of this community?

     

    What is the purpose of members engaging in the community discussions?

     

    What tools or strategies does the group use to attempt to solve the issue at hand?

     

    Do you find this group efficient? Why?

     

Results of the task:

  • In answering the questions, students are consciously thinking about data analysis.
  • Students are encouraged to return to the initial question and try to answer it based on the answers to the questions above: “How does online sociability help in solving the most critical issue in your locality (district, town, region)?”
  • Students should think about the culture and value systems of the observed online group in order to understand how the issue to be solved is defined.
  • Students should think about what strategies are discussed or employed by the group in order to address the issue at hand.
  • Students should evaluate the efficiency of this group, but not only in terms of solving the problem, but also in terms of influencing the discourse about the problem, raising awareness about the problem etc.

Task 4: Discuss your findings in 2-3 concise paragraphs, reflecting on the most important findings from your research. Present your findings in class and receive feedback.

Results of the task:

  • Students learn to summarize their research and formulate their own analysis based on first-hand data they collected during netnographic research. Note that students are not expected to write an academic, rigorous research summary. Instead, students reflect on their own research (what group they observed, over what period of time, how they collected and analyzed data, what were their findings) in writing, and then present it in class.
  • An important part of this task is feedback. Teachers are encouraged to 1) facilitate class discussion about each research project in order to give feedback to students and encourage all students to think together; 2) give individual feedback to each student based on their written assignment.
  • Optionally, students may draw conclusions from this study and repeat the assignment again, studying a different group and/or different research question. Teachers may decide whether a follow-up task is beneficial for students.