Due to the holidays I have extended the deadline for Round 1 of the study. I have sent a reminder to all participants and asked them to complete the survey by Friday, January 4th (if they haven’t already). I currently have 9 responses. However, posting on my blog a reflection on the process prompted many other potential participants to come forward, and prompted my existing participants to suggest colleagues who might be interested in participating. At this point I now have 18 participants who have returned a consent form, 2 more who intend to do so, and the 1 dropout. So, I am hopeful that I can reach at least 12 responses, if not as many as 20, by January 4th. This will give me greater confidence that as I proceed I will be able to finish the study with the minimum number of participants that I recommended in my proposal. If, however, this is not the case, I am sure that the data I am collecting will still be valuable. My early analysis turned up a variety of meaningful perspectives already, and it still remains for me to code the most recent four responses.
It has become less likely I will finish collecting data before the baby is born. I now project finishing data collection sometime between Feb 1 and Feb 15. The baby is due on the 5th. I am also concerned about making the March 1st “deadline” for having a draft of my results ready. Hopefully I can push that back and still be able to graduate in May.