Photo taken by Pilot MKN in 2012 and posted on Flikr. So - the post title of course is a reminder that this is supposed to be in essence my research journal. I have been working with a (diminishing) group on a project to assess whether physical activity in rural communities increases as the result of a newly available rails-to-trails facility. The pretest or baseline data collection took place last fall. The trail was supposed to open in spring - no later than April. Here is it August 18th and the scheduled 'grand opening' for yesterday was postponed again. Projected opening date now is September. The research was designed to collect data over time on both reported physical activity and a nonequivalent dependent variable - fruit and veg consumption. Anticipated data collection points were to occur approximately seasonally, so when pretest data collection was planned, we anticipated that we would have at least one if not two other data collection bouts before hitting the one year anniversary of the pretest. Instead we have none.
I had been thinking through arrangements to collect data during the fall based on trail availability from late summer forward but given the current time frame, I am not certain that October or even November data collection is worthwhile given availability of the facility beginning at the end of September (if no further delays occur). The trail could open sooner - but it would be a 'soft' (prior to the opening ceremony) opening so I am not certain how much awareness there would be at that point. On the other hand, we had wanted a second pretest so maybe I should go ahead an implement the fall data collection and consider it in that role. This project is particularly critical to me because I want to find a way to manage it remotely assuming I get a job upon graduation and move away. Bottom line is that like many things, it is probably a good idea to anticipate in a resear that whatever (else) can go wrong, may very likely go wrong.
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AuthorI am Sheryl L. Chatfield, Ph.D, C.T.R.S. I am a member of the faculty in the College of Public Health at Kent State University. I also Co-coordinate the Graduate Certificate in Qualitative Research and I am a member of the Design Innovation Team at Kent State. Archives
February 2024
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