Methodology for Investigating Monash Microgrid Visualization

Introduction:

To achieve the objectives of this study, a methodology was conducted according to the appropriateness of the descriptive and exploratory nature of this research. Neuman (1994) suggests that descriptive research concentrates on how things are and how they are related within social settings while exploratory research focuses on exploring new ideas. At the first stage of the research process, descriptive research was utilized with the intention of profiling the previous studies in the literature which relates to the background and context of the research problems. For students seeking support with literature review dissertation help, this stage acts as a critical foundation for understanding existing research in the field of the study. At the second stage, an exploratory analysis was used to discover the Monash Microgrid stakeholder’s points of view on visualizing the Monash Microgrid. This part describes the research design processes, data collection methods in terms of how the survey instrument and interviews were developed and validated, meeting the ethics requirements. The chapter also discusses the techniques and tools used for data analysis.

Collecting the requirements:

In consideration of the most suitable method to elicit information from Monash Microgrid stakeholders, email questionnaire and interview research techniques were chosen. The selection of email-questionnaire was considered appropriate due to its advantages and appropriateness to the exploratory nature of research problems. The second data collection approach, a semi-structured interviewing method was nominated for the aim of exploring how the stakeholder visualises the Monash Microgrid. The literature review helped to determine the questions that must be asked to the stakeholders. In addition, the survey involved the participation of three stakeholders (domain experts) from Monash University. The experts fulfilled the validation requirements in terms of their experience in the Monash Microgrid. In this stage, the data was collected through a questioner and face-to-face interviews with the participants. The survey instrument was sent to each participant one week before the interview and later the interviews were undertaken and recorded.

Questionnaire:

The email questionnaire is a cost-effective method which allows scholars to reach respondents from a wider geographic area with less effort in time and money (Cargan 2007), (Jaspreet Kaur Boparai1, Surjit Singh2, *, and Priyanka Kathuria3)).

Data were collected through a mailed, survey questionnaire. The targeted participants were:

The survey questionnaires were sent to them along with a cover letter and explanatory statement which explained how their participation contributes to visualising the Monash Microgrid and how the confidentiality of the information provided would be assured.

The questionnaire titled "Visualising Monash Microgrid using a Large Tiled Wall Display" was designed to explore the background and the vision of the Monash Microgrid stakeholders. Consisting of 8 questions. The first three questions explored the level of involvement of each participant in the survey. The second section sought to discover the current knowledge and expectation of the visualisation. A copy of the questionnaire is included as Appendix A. The questionnaire includes closed-ended and open-ended questions. As visualising the Monash Microgrid is an emergent topic, straightforward questions about their role and background at the beginning were included to gain the importance of their participation in the study. At the end of the questionnaire, open-ended questions were included to obtain expanded answers from the stakeholder's points of view about their visual impression of what the Monash Microgrid looks like by taking a photo and upload it.

Expert Interview:

The second data collection approach was semi-structured interviewing which was used with the three stakeholders from Monash, to explore their intuitive knowledge, practical experiences, and evaluations in dealing with the challenges of understanding the Monash Microgrid. As per Berg (2007), an interview which is semi-structured lies between completely unstructured and completely structured interviewing patterns. The structured interview carrying fixed questions provides very little room for variations in response while the unstructured (in-depth) interview is very flexible and suitable for normal conversation or field work (Minichiello et al. 1995; Denzin & Lincoln 1994). The interview which is semi-structured looks for “deep knowledge, lived experiences and occupational ideology” and facilitates examining theories that the researcher has formulated while discovering “multiple meanings or perspectives on some actions” (Johnson 2002, p.98)). Other significance of interviewing which have been addressed by researchers include the flexibility to adjust to diverse situations; the ability to clarify any sources of confusion in questions or responses as well as the ability to work with the respondents to probe for more detail, exchange views, or ask complex questions (Rea & Parker 2005; Sarantakos 1998; Neuman 2003;).

Designing the questions

Interview questions were designed to elicit the practical knowledge and ideas that the stakeholders have in order to understand and visualise the concept to help to develop the system. A copy of the Interview Questions is given in Appendix B. The interview conducted questions about their role of the Monash Microgrid, motivations to be involved, the goal of the project, the most important characteristic can help them to understand the Microgrid, their knowledge about the Microgrid data and visualisation and their vision of representing that data in FCR.

Participant

Three professionals (stakeholders) from Monash University were chosen to participate for a number of specific reasons. It was considered that practical experiences in the Monash Microgrid resources are very important and that Monash is facing similar challenges in confirming the concept. Monash University has reached an advanced level in developing the Microgrid, and therefore, visualising it in a way that makes it easier to represent and understand it is very crucial. I have become familiar with the Monash Microgrid throughout my study, and interviewing the professionals opened up the opportunity to explore potential issues with presenting the data and discuss possible solutions in-depth. Due to the constraints of time and research scope, three interviews were considered an adequate number for a Master minor thesis, which is equivalent to one semester of fulltime study.

Data collection and analysis

Interviewees were asked to undertake a sixty minute recorded the interview in their own workplaces or in meeting rooms at Monash, Clayton campus. The interview began with an introduction about the aim of the project, a guarantee of confidentiality of collected information. The content of the interview was centred on the research problems; however, questions were given in flexible wording and mode of ordering. Minichiello et al. (1995) argues that, this approach is considered as more effective for complex topics in which greater flexibility is needed to achieve “more valid explication of the informant’s perception of reality” Also, based on the informants’ responses, some follow-up questions were asked to obtain further explanation, clarification and in-depth information. Interview transcripts were tape-recorded (after gaining permission from the interviewee), transcribed and word processed to produce text files for the data analysis process. In the process of analysis, I followed the data analysis strategy as outlined by Taylor & Bogdan (1984), which includes three stages: coding the data to discover themes and develop propositions; adding further refinements to emergent themes and propositions, and reporting findings.

Conclusion

This section has deeply discussed the study’s design. The study’s research method was chosen in consideration of its relevance and appropriateness to the nature of the research questions. Two data collection techniques: e-mail questionnaire and interview were employed. Steps for designing questions, participant identification and selection, and data collection and analysis were presented. The findings of both survey methods were synthesized with findings from the literature review to answer the first and second sub-questions of the research.

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