Transforming Qualitative Interviewing Techniques for Video Conferencing Platforms

This paper points out the main opportunities and challenges when qualitative data collection (both in-depth interviews and focus groups) is transferred from an in-person setting to a video conferencing platform. Online video research interviews (OVRI) permit an overcoming of limitations in in-person interviews such as access to participants, time, expense, and a potential impact of the researcher's physical presence during data collection on the subjects' responses. The most prominent challenges regarding the quality of OVRIs are: building rapport and restricted visual cues, turn-taking, participant activation through exercises and participant validation. In this article we offer advice on how to solve these challenges.