RESEARCH MEMO

[Interview Guide]

Introduction:

Hi, my name is [Name], I’m an Information science student at the University of Maryland. We are currently working on a project to help resolve operating system issues such as incompatibilities when using a Mac operating system in environments designed primarily for Windows.

I want to learn more about your experiences as a college student who uses primarily a Mac operating system in an IT related field or who has to deal with the usage of multiple types of software in class environments.

I would also like to ask further if you’ve encountered issues with your current setup that has caused your learning experience to be hindered in a classroom environment or has caused difficulty in the completion of assignments.

If you are confused by any of the questions presented please feel free to express that, as I’ll be happy to clarify and give examples. Otherwise, if you are completely unsure of any of the questions, we can simply skip it.

Please feel free to express your answers freely as we will have no judgement over them. For the purpose of the research, we would like to record the video and audio to make sure we have proper references and quotes. These recordings will only be used for this project and will not be shared with anyone. Also, if you’d like to be referenced anonymously, we can change your name to something else when you are referenced or quoted.

The interview may take up to 15 minutes. Do you have any questions before we get started?

Otherwise, with your permission, we will begin recording our conversation, is this okay with you?

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Warm Up Questions:

• How is college going?

  • Have your classes been making you make use of your computer often?

    • Do you end up downloading a lot of programs to use for certain classes?

  • What type of major field are you in?

    • How heavily does it revolve around IT?

General Questions:

• What is your primary device you use for your tasks and free time?

  • Laptop

  • Desktop PC

  • Smartphone

• Which operating system do you think is better?

  • Which one do you primarily use/prefer?

    • Mac/Windows/Other

  • Have you had the opportunity to work with both Windows and Mac operating systems extensively?

• How often have you seen other students in your classes using Macs?

  • Have you ever noticed how diverse other students' computers were, as in were there more Mac or Windows computers being used by your classmates?

Focused Questions:

• How comfortable are you with technology?

  • Do you use your computer for just browsing or do you do anything more technically advanced?

• Have you ever had any difficulties using a Mac OS in a class revolving around using various software?

  • Did the Professor offer programs that could be downloaded for both Mac and Windows users?

• Have you ever been in a class that needed a required program installed but was only for Windows, in which the Professor states you would have to download an alternate program?

  • Did the alternate program make it difficult to follow along with class instructions/learning?

• What are some programs you can’t use because of your OS?

  • How much of an impact does that have on your experiences?

• Did you ever get a unique error for software/programs when following along in class with the Professor on your Mac?

  • Did anyone else using a Mac come across similar problems that made it difficult for them to follow along?

  • Did issues for Windows users happen often or at all as well?

Wrap-up Questions:

• Is there anything else you wanted to mention that relates to what I’ve been asking?

• Did you want to talk more about a certain topic or question I mentioned?

• Is there another issue relating to this topic you think I missed and want to add?

• That's all the questions I have for you, thanks so much for allowing us to interview you.