Example: Interview Protocol--The Concept of Open

Training Commons Interview Protocol

The interview protocol below was developed for the Mission 2007 Training Commons project. The project sought to create open content (training modules) with the help of participating organizations who would later use the modules in their own training. The authors of the modules--who worked within the partcipating organizations--were interviewed to understand how they perceived "open content", and the impact that creating open content would have on their organizations.

1. To begin the interview, please tell me about how you became involved in the Training Commons project.

2. Have you been developing any open content before joining this project? If yes, please tell me about it.

3. How does/did the idea of making content open mesh with your own organization’s goals?

a. Have the goals changed over time? If so, what are reasons why they changed?

b. What does ‘open content’ mean to you?

c. How does the Training Commons project define "open"?

4. When the idea of making content open was communicated to you, how would you describe your organization’s response?

a. Do you think there are inputs or support mechanisms that should be in place to support future, similar efforts? If so, how would these be helpful?

5. How has the project and the work to make content open impacted your organization?

6. In retrospect, what have been the positive outcomes for the process of making content open, and for the modules you’ve created?

a. Have there been any drawbacks?

b. What would you or your organization do differently?

Pointers

• During an interview, if you need more information from your participant or if the answers are not specific enough, you can ask follow-up questions. Follow up questions (also called "probing" questions) often start with "what" or "how" and they aim to elicit more information and details. A few examples of probing questions include:

Can you give me an example of ...?

Could you tell me more about ...?

What exactly do you mean by ...?

How do you feel about ...?