Conducting

Research
in a
Pandemic

Rechelle Ann Sarzaba

Plan 299 D
 Discussion
Outline
• Pandemic (on the case of
COVID-19) overview
• How this Pandemic affected
the research community?
• Challenges in conducting research in
a pandemic
• Considerations in overcoming these
challenges
• Community engagement tools and
other guidelines in conducting
research in a pandemic
• Other insights on the current
research situation
COVID -19
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectiousdisease
caused by a novel coronavirus now called severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2;
formerly called 2019-nCoV)
December 2019 - Reportedly originatedfrom
Wuhan, China
January 30, 2020 - WHO declared the COVID-19
outbreak as globalhealth emergency
March 11,2020 - WHO declared COVID-19 as a
global pandemic

Source: World Health Organization

QUICK COVID-19 UPDATES as of June 10,2021

Source: World Health Organization

Source: DOH Philippines


How the pandemic affected the
research community?
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected a variety of
researchers, students and academics as
institutions of higher education have limited in-
person activities, research and training have
been disrupted, and many graduate students
have faced new barriers as a result
"Access tolab equipmentandprogramshas been a personal
challenge for me. Our university does not provide student
access to some of the statistical software my lab uses, but
they had strict COVID policies that prevented me from being on
campus."
- Avia Gray, MA, doctoral student at University of California
"My research has been significantly stalled due to
COVID-19. I have put several data collection projects on
hold and have had to delay some writing projects due
to the demands of online teaching."
- Erlanger Turner, PhD, assistant professor at Pepperdine
University
"For everyone’s safety, my university followed the strict CDC
guidelines from the onset. Unfortunately, this also meant that
all university-affiliated research came to an immediate halt.
My time-sensitive and ambitious study idea had to be
scrapped for a new one that did not require in-person
sessions.”
- Candice Stanfield-Wiswell, MA, a doctoral student at George
Mason University
Source: https://www.apa.org/science/leadership/students/covid-19-impact-researchers
 Challenges in conducting research
during pandemic
Accessibility to physical
Data Collection laboratory spaces or data Additional Costs
Health protocols (lockdowns, resources Social distancing has added to
social distancing) kept researchers the cost of research projects,
from conducting face-to-face The pandemic prevented researcher from forcing institutions to make
interaction with the study site physical lab spaces and other data sources difficult choices
which delays projects by months (and year)

Transitioning to digital Participants / respondent’s

platforms
Not all researchers or community
mobilizers are tech savvy and still use
traditional practices in conducting
research
situation
Given the disruption to employment or family
life that caused by pandemic and lockdowns, the
sample of population may not be mentally and
emotionally fit in participating the research
Community-based organizations or research institutions can engage community members in many
ways during COVID-19 pandemic, so beginning outreach, ask yourself the following questions:

1 What are we hoping to achieve through community engagement? When we receive that input, will we be
able to act on it?

2 Is it critical that we collect this input right now? Could some input gathering be postponed one week? One
month? Several months? How will postponing engagements affect the long-term project goals?

Do the engagements we want to host and the questions we want to ask reflect the current
3 situation? How can we adapt our questions to acknowledge what is going on and offer space for
community members to talk about how they’re doing during this pandemic?

4 Will anyone respond to our questions right now?

Can we engage a representative sample of our community, or would we miss some people if we
5 proceeded with engagement right now?

How will community members receive our request (i.e., will they be accommodating,
6 frustrated, or bothered)?

Do we have mechanisms in place to avoid overburdening our community members with

7 requests for input?

Are there other things we can be doing now to advance our goals or support community
8 members that don’t involve hosting community engagement events or conducting surveys?
If so, are these options we can easily implement and that fit within our budget and capabilities?
What are the
considerations in
overcoming the
identified
challenges?
 1. Minimizing Exclusions
Some groups have been identified as more likely to be excluded by
research as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, including those who:
• Lack digital literacy or access
to digital technologies
• Socio-economically deprived
• Have lost support needed to
be able to participate in
research
• Mental health issues and
unwell condition
Source: Ramirez, Rachel, Grist.org
Unintentional exclusion from research can happen when:
Reaching and choosing
Research tools require a level of access
to technology, excluding those without participants requires a
access, in particular women and low- level of access to
income families technology
Some ways to overcome these problems (to an
extent) include:
1. The use of “community mobilizers” who
could take technology to the homes of the
people who need to be reached (if safe to do
so), as well as providing training to
research participants on how to use the
technology they have
2. Assigning research funds to enhance
access to technology, such as better
internet coverage
3. Considering the use of secondary data,
instead of data collection
4. Designing sampling strategies to
deliberately include ‘hard to reach’ groups
2. Maximizing ethics

Consent Setting Risk

Although participating Researchers must ensure to
Consent forms could be sent,
online research remotely at keep themselves and their
discussed and returned via
the comfort of their homes, participants safe, thus, do not
email. Oral consent could be
it is important to remind take unnecessary risks or feel
considered, particularly if it’s
the participants that they in any way obligated to do so.
possible to record it.
are being interviewed Find ways to ensure open
and/or recorded to communication through the
acknowledge privacy course of the research
concerns
Tools for
Engagement and
Approaches in
Conducting
Research in
Pandemic
Non-Digital Tools for Community Engagement
As many people practice social distancing, opportunities can arise to connect with limited mobility, internet access,
limited familiarity with computers and the internet. Here, we share some non-digital tools for engaging with groups
who are often from community engagement activities.

Making phone calls

and phone trees Using community
networks and
Mailing information connections
to people’s homes
The Pivot: Shifting to Digital World
Technology
Work with your partners to
think creatively about
stitching tools together to
accomplish research tasks
Connectivity
Research projects could divert
travel funds to invest in
improved internet connections
for local researchers, research
organizations, and participants
Logistics
As we take research online, be
ready to manage things (such
as technical difficulties) and
ensure creative research
activities are articulated clearly
in the guide, and that everyone
knows their role in facilitating,
participating, or listening in.
Methods
Plan your methodology very
well that will be applicable to
your current research that
you’re doing
Accessibility and Usability
We need to have a user
experience mindset
• Is the platform easy to
use for my participants?
• Are my questions and
instructions clear?
Test your plans and
platforms with partners and
consider doing dry runs to
pressure test bandwidth and
system nuances
Digital Tools and Approaches: Designing
Remote Research for Rich Insights

Source: Kelton Global

 Phase 1: Align
Alignment is where you, your team, stakeholders, and
your partners all get on the same page about goals of a
research initiative. These includes:
• Generating research questions, hypotheses
• Cataloging what you know, what you think you know
and what you hope to achieve to know through the
work
• Recruitment, preparation and guide development

Tips:
1. Use good web conferencing platform and
whiteboarding platform to allow everyone to be
heard
2. Setup a template for your hypothesis session activity
3. Establish ground rules for how to participate and
share thinking
4. Assign roles so you know who is facilitating and who
is capturing the conversation on the whiteboard

Source: https://cdtalaw.com/cdta/using-zoom-to-enhance-your-law-school-experience/
Web-Conferencing Collaborative
Platforms Whiteboarding and
Brainstorming
Phase 2: Explore
Online In-depth Interview and Web-based Social media
SmartCommunities Focus Groups surveys platforms
For having live conversations with These surveys can produce Social media platforms can
SmartCommuunities are
one participant or many use any web higher quality data since an offer a quick way to
great for getting incredibly
conferencing platform or there are automatic skipping and informally engage with
deep insights and talking to
options that give you everything you branching logic as well as community members. The
many participants over a
need – complete with digital back warning messages in case of users of each platform
length of time (from 2-day to
rooms for the team, card sorting, missing answers can be vary, and you will need to
2-week long studies). Each
whiteboarding, and polling foreseen. strategize how to best use
day can be a mix of
journaling, photo/video each.
Suggested platforms: Suggested platforms:
share-outs, and creative
exercises

Suggested platform:
 Digital Platforms
Web-conferencing /
webinar software
Zoom, Google Hangouts,
Webex, Bluejeans, MS Teams
Other tools for interviews and
FGDs: Focus Vision, discuss.io
Online brainstorming and
Collaborative Project
Planning tools:
Google Docs, Mural, Whimsical,
Miro
Survey Platforms:
Qualtrics, Survey Monkey,
Google Forms
Social Media Platforms:
Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram,
etc
Goal Potential Challenges
Inform, Consult, • Should observe privacy and security precautions
Involve necessary to protect people on the call
• If you plan to record a meeting, it is important to
inform attendees especially if you plan to
publish the recording
Involve and • Because anyone with a login and link to a document
Collaborate can contribute to it, establish guidelines for
contributing so that everyone has a chance to
contribute and the documents don’t become unruly or
unorganized
• Because these tools are less commonly used and not
that popular, implementing them on a team may require
some training so that community members feel
comfortable with their use.
Consult • Avoid using biased questions and getting duplicate
responses
• Conduct pilot test to ensure effective survey design
Inform and Consult • Anyone can post anything, thus, it is critical to have an
active moderator on the platforms who approves
content and who can monitor posts to address
challenging comments as soon as they are posted
• Requires more attention, engagement, and monitoring
Pricing Scheme
Google Hangouts is free with an account. Zoom,
WebEx, Bluejeans, MS Teams, FocusVision, discuss.io
have pricing plans for different levels of use
Google Docs - free with a Google account
Mural – free trial 30 days, have pricing plans for
different levels of use
Whimsical – free with limited functionality (maximum
of 2 workspace, unlimited members); have pricing plans
for different levels of use
Miro – free with limited functionality (3 editable boards,
unlimited members); have pricing plans for different
levels of use
Qualtrics requires a paid account. Survey Monkey can
be used for free with limited functionality; paying for an
account allows for more options and data analysis.
Google Forms is free to use with a Google account.
Social media platforms are free
 Phase 3: Activate
When it comes to activation, there are a variety of ways
you can pull your team together, collaborate powerfully,
align on priorities, and maintain a strong sense of
momentum to push forward your research goals

Tips:
1. Now is the time where meetings shouldn’t simply
happen – they should be designed. Bring intention to
digital workshops through clear agendas and well-
structured activities

2. Align on how you’ll collaborate on documents and

store files so you can review research simply and
easily together:

Source: https://www.megameeting.com/news/five-ways-web-video-conferencing-benefit-business/
1. Pick a (virtual) location: To make the most out of
group activation, align on visual workspace you can all
use
A pause Yet, while the coronavirus has brought many challenges to
research nowadays, it has created opportunities to research

or an moving forward:

• Using the opportunity of online activities to create cross-

opportunity? programmatic learning and knowledge exchange bringing research

teams together from around the world and help break down
barriers
• The pandemic has brought a spirit of collaboration to research
institutions
• Contributing positive global environmental impact
• COVID-19 reshapes the research landscape and gives institutions
a chance to reimagine what’s possible moving forward

“Our scientific community was made stronger through

these difficult times. Through various digital platforms, we
developed and nurtured professional relationships that led
to collaborations with others from across the globe, not just
within our local circles”

Stanfield-Wiswell
Thank you for listening!
Stay Covid-free ☺
References:
Castro Superfine, A. (2020). Conducting research in the time of pandemic: A pause or an opportunity? Journal of Mathematics
Teacher Education, 23(5), 429-431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-020-09478-w
Fedorowicz, M. (2020). Community Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond. Urban
Institute. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/102820/community-engagement-during-the-covid-19-
pandemic-and-beyond.pdf
Guzman, D. (2020, August 25). 3 challenges and 3 opportunities for researchers during COVID-19. Ex
Libris. https://exlibrisgroup.com/blog/researchers-covid19-3-challenges-3-opportunities/
Mitchelle, R. (2021, January 12). How to overcome the challenges of doing research during COVID-19. Institute of Development
Studies. https://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/how-to-overcome-the-challenges-of-doing-research-during-covid19/
Q&A: How to safely conduct research during a pandemic. (2020, September 15). College of Natural Resources
News. https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2020/09/qa-how-to-safely-conduct-research-during-a-pandemic/
Ramos, S. (2021, March 1). COVID-19’s impact felt by researchers.
https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/science/leadership/students/covid-19-impact-researchers
World Health Organization. (2021, June 11). WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/