BMR placement Semester 2

 

I was lucky enough to be able to do my second placement at the BMR. This allowed me to follow-on through with the projects I was involved in in the first semester. My second placement was extremely busy and during this time I saw the completion of the library and the Casual Day projects.

Library project

My input into the writing of the report involved doing a literature review creating a detailed excel spreadsheet for each respondent detailing their navigation paths in the completion of the tasks that were set for them and doing a qualitative analysis on the comments received from participants. My input resulted in my name being added to the cover of the final report to the client. A presentation of the findings was made to the client which I also attended

Casual Day project

The Casual Day project saw me involved in interviewing participants in addition to carrying out psychophysiological measurements on them. The interviewing technique used was the laddering technique and although shaky at first, I soon managed to obtain the richness of data that this technique elicits. Another big job was the transcribing of these interviews and then the extraction of themes.

As with the library project, I undertook a literature review for the final project and assisted with the analysis of the data. At the beginning of my placement, the client asked for an interim report of our findings at that stage. Again, I was very happy that my name was put on this interim report (BMR Pilot report – Casual Day Project – cover) and will be put on the final report for the client.

At all time I was welcomed by the BMR and made to feel a valued member of their team. They involved me in their social activities (tea and cake at farewells and birthdays) and encouraged me by offering me many opportunities to expand my knowledge and experience.

Other exposure I had during my time at the BMR involved:

  1. In-depth interviewing
  2. Working with Excel (General analysis and pivot tables)
  3. Literature review
  4. report writing
  5. focus groups
  6. field work
  7. thematic analysis
  8. Qualtrics
  9. Generally how a research organisation runs