Research forums

You may have tried dropping questions into existing discussion forums - but the quality (and quantity) of these can be very questionable. Schoolzone research forums are a different animal! We don't leave it to chance.

Schoolzone research forums are excellent tools for facilitating asynchronous discussion between pre-selected participants which takes place online behind a secure, password protected login. Clients can develop their research during the course of data gathering, by adding questions having read responses to earlier ones, so they are great if you're looking for a flexible research option.

"I know exactly what I'd tell Mr Gove now; this forum has helped crystallise my ideas so I'd not be reduced to an incoherent rant." Anne, curriculum reform forum, Nov. 2012

Documents or content can be loaded into the forum for the panel to look at, and even annotate. Participants can also share their own documents or content, if required. Our experience is that teachers are familiar with sharing comments and feedback via this medium and so a research community quickly develops.

Research forums can be scheduled to last for as long as you wish, but typically they run for one or two weeks.

Practitioners are required to spend a minimum amount of time (again, this is typically one to two hours, but can be much longer if necessary) logging onto the forum and responding to the researcher’s questions, and commenting on other comments posted. They are also required to access the forum a minimum number of times, although they may do so flexibly when it suits them.

The client is given access to the forum, so they can see comments unfolding day by day.

Once the forum closes, the data is summarised, analysed, and presented in the most relevant format.

As with all our research reporting, we consider participants’ feedback within the wider market context, and set out clear recommendations and calls to action.

Schoolzone research terms and conditions