Table 1.

Critical questions to ask in planning an online forum for a qualitative study

Steps of Planning	Questions to ask
Research Purpose and/or Questions?	Is it essential to have an online forum to achieve research purpose and/or address research questions?
Logistics	What are the specific steps that you want to take in administering an online forum? Do you want to use user IDs and passwords? Facilitator-moderated? The format of the messages?
Informed Consent	Is it feasible to get conventional informed Consent or electronic informed Consent?
Structure and Functionality	What are the structure and functionality required to achieve the research purpose and to address research questions?
Expertise in Computer and Internet Technology	Could an interdisciplinary research team be built? Does the study design require specific computer and Internet technologies?
Screening Methods	How do you want to check if potential participants meet the inclusion criteria? Electronically (through a website or by email), by phone, or by face-to-face meeting?
Languages	What are the languages that will be used in the online forum? Single or multiple languages? Does the forum site support multi-language functionality? How do you want to translate the message in languages other than the original language used in the online forum?
Data Analysis Methods	Do you want to use computer software to manage and analyze the data? Do you want to print out the data as transcripts directly from the database? What specific qualitative data analysis method do you want to use to analyze the online forum data?
Getting Participants’ Feedback	When and how do you want to get participants’ feedback on your study findings?