The Use of Online Semi-Structured Interviews in Interpretive Research

Abstract

Semi structured interviews are commonly used in qualitative research generally and interpretive research in particular.Semi-structured interviews can be an effective tool in interpretive research because they help the researcher gain in-depth data of participants' perspectives and make sense of their lived stories and experiences as told by them. Semi structured interviews can take different forms such as face-to-face and online and have a number of advantages like flexibility and are interactive in nature. However, semi-structured interviews especially the online ones can be challenging for researchers because all the visual and non-verbal cues (facial expressions, gestures, body language) which can help to contextualize the interview in a face-to-face scenario are lost (O'Connor et al., 2008). This paper presents the researcher's experience of using online semi-structured interviews in interpretive research, and what the researcher has learnt from this experience.