Conducting A Focus Group

Conducting focus groups seems to be a process that is practically intuitive. However, this key practice in qualitative research requires that a novice facilitator must do his or her homework. This article describes the process by which I became more cognizant of the tools necessary to be successful in planning and running focus groups. The article provides information about books and articles that were useful in providing practical information. It also details the use of the learning-by-doing journey embarked upon at my institution, whereby we conducted 56 town hall meetings over a four month time period using a focus group approach to gain understanding about key constituents\u27 beliefs about engagement at the institution