Technology and Method Intersect in the Online Focus Group

Online focus groups may provide a new tool for research conducted in sport science settings (e.g., psychology, sociology, management, physical education, and recreation). Benefits of online focus groups include the ability for people in multiple locations to respond synchronously via chat rooms or asynchronously via discussion software. Additional benefits include increased equality of participation, greater participant diversity, the matching of research design with research environment, researcher interaction, and the elimination of transcribing. Disadvantages include under representation of non-Internet users, lack of face-to-face contact, potential participant no-show rate, and the difficulty of securing data on the Internet. Sport science scholars are encouraged to examine this emerging method as related to their specific research aims and consider application of online focus groups to further their research.