Research method
Semi-Structured Interview
9 studies
A semi-structured interview follows a topic guide but lets the interviewee steer examples, contradictions and silences. Transcripts are coded for themes, not averaged like Likert totals and not assigned like experimental conditions. Small interview sets can explain how loneliness, lockdown teaching or blended belonging felt; they cannot estimate how common those feelings are or prove that a named pedagogy caused them.
Engagement papers reach for interviews when surveys would flatten motive, stigma or the gap between teacher and student accounts. They answer 'how did these people narrate the situation?' Their main limitation is sampling: nine disabled online students, a 13% engineering response plus follow-up interviews, or 57 wellbeing volunteers are depth, not prevalence.
Studies
9
Findings
6
6 supporting · 0 challenging · 0 qualifying citations
Open tensions
2
Currently
What we know
- Nine online students with disabilities described loneliness and social connectedness. Self-paced asynchronous study could reduce stigma but also produce loneliness; difficulties were linked to misunderstanding of disability. Informal activities, events and staff dialogue were proposed as supports. Nine interviews cannot estimate prevalence or prove which supports causally reduce loneliness.
- French university students and staff sat long interviews (January–April 2021) about lockdown online teaching. Arrival motives (default, status, professionalisation) shaped the experience; when spatial routines, interaction and recognition disappeared, disadvantaged students especially lost motivation. Individual resilience strategies rarely restored engagement; social recognition, care and some restored institutional structure did more. This is a lockdown case study, not a causal test of a named online pedagogy.
- Fifty-seven London undergraduates from modules that already included wellbeing elements (Psychology, English, Nursing, International Politics, War Studies; four nursing students piloted) produced three interview/focus-group themes: embedding wellbeing content; assessment, challenge and academic support; and social connection. Students welcomed scaffolded challenge and emphasised staff and peer relationships. Modules were not a controlled wellbeing trial; mental-health diagnoses were not measured.
- A case study of three blended courses combined observations, LMS documents and teacher/student interviews on sense of community. Flipped strategies and presence-related activities supported belonging, but teachers and students sometimes disagreed on which activities mattered most and what was missing. Three convenience courses cannot estimate how common the practices are.
- Engineering students were surveyed about sudden online migration (about 13% of the college population responded, mostly undergraduates) and then students and highly voted instructors were interviewed. Reactions mixed excitement with stress; thematic analyses identified valued practices and challenges, arguing that technology must be paired with pedagogy in crises. Voluntary response in one college cannot prove which tools maximise learning.
Largest unresolved question
Whether 'students adapted' is the story depends on whose interviews you read. Emergency-remote interviewees gradually adjusted after an unsatisfactory start. French lockdown interviews found that individual resilience rarely restored engagement, especially for disadvantaged students, until recognition and some institutional structure returned. Those are different samples and different claims about what repair looks like.
Procedure
How it works
The main stages of the method. Specific protocols and analysis choices vary between studies.
Write a topic guide
The researcher lists themes to cover — loneliness, lockdown teaching, blended belonging, training feasibility — without fixing every wording. The guide is a prompt, not a questionnaire.
Let the interviewee steer examples
Follow-up questions chase contradictions, silences, and examples the speaker raises. That flexibility is the method; it is also why transcripts cannot be averaged like Likert totals.
Record and transcribe
Speech becomes text. What is later coded is this conversation, under this relationship and this moment, not a complete account of the course.
Code for themes
Transcripts are grouped into themes, sometimes compared across teachers and students. Small interview sets explain how a situation was narrated; they do not estimate how common those feelings are.
Treat the transcript as narration, not prevalence
Interviews answer how these people narrated the situation. Nine disabled online students, a thin engineering follow-up, or volunteers judging a training feasible are depth, not a prevalence estimate and not proof that a named pedagogy caused the feeling.
Common misconceptions
Nine detailed interviews tell you how common loneliness is among disabled online students.
They show how those nine people linked stigma, misunderstanding and asynchronous study to loneliness. Prevalence and which supports work would need different designs.
If interviewees praise a training or a blended activity, the pedagogy has been shown to work.
EQUIP participants judged feasibility and usefulness; the study does not quantify client outcomes or beat a control curriculum. Three blended-course interviews cannot prove sense-of-community causes achievement.
Students and teachers interviewed about the same course will agree on what engaged them.
In the three blended courses, teachers and students sometimes differed on which activities mattered most for sense of community and what was missing.
Related
Claim ledger
What the evidence shows
Drawn from 9 studies in this library. Mix labels say which citation roles are present; they are not a strength score. Supports means evidence for a finding; Challenges means evidence against a stated position; Qualifies marks scope.
Nine online students with disabilities described loneliness and social connectedness. Self-paced asynchronous study could reduce stigma but also produce loneliness; difficulties were linked to misunderstanding of disability. Informal activities, events and staff dialogue were proposed as supports. Nine interviews cannot estimate prevalence or prove which supports causally reduce loneliness.
French university students and staff sat long interviews (January–April 2021) about lockdown online teaching. Arrival motives (default, status, professionalisation) shaped the experience; when spatial routines, interaction and recognition disappeared, disadvantaged students especially lost motivation. Individual resilience strategies rarely restored engagement; social recognition, care and some restored institutional structure did more. This is a lockdown case study, not a causal test of a named online pedagogy.
Fifty-seven London undergraduates from modules that already included wellbeing elements (Psychology, English, Nursing, International Politics, War Studies; four nursing students piloted) produced three interview/focus-group themes: embedding wellbeing content; assessment, challenge and academic support; and social connection. Students welcomed scaffolded challenge and emphasised staff and peer relationships. Modules were not a controlled wellbeing trial; mental-health diagnoses were not measured.
A case study of three blended courses combined observations, LMS documents and teacher/student interviews on sense of community. Flipped strategies and presence-related activities supported belonging, but teachers and students sometimes disagreed on which activities mattered most and what was missing. Three convenience courses cannot estimate how common the practices are.
Engineering students were surveyed about sudden online migration (about 13% of the college population responded, mostly undergraduates) and then students and highly voted instructors were interviewed. Reactions mixed excitement with stress; thematic analyses identified valued practices and challenges, arguing that technology must be paired with pedagogy in crises. Voluntary response in one college cannot prove which tools maximise learning.
Emergency-remote researchers surveyed 138 students in Finland and India (132 faced multiple challenges, about four on average) and followed a smaller subset with interviews and diaries. Engagement was moderate; students adjusted gradually without accepting emergency remote learning as a long-term normal. Interviews here interpret a survey catalogue; they do not test an intervention.
Debates
Tensions and limits
Some items are genuine disagreements on the same question. Others mark different assays, populations, or outcomes.
Whether 'students adapted' is the story depends on whose interviews you read. Emergency-remote interviewees gradually adjusted after an unsatisfactory start. French lockdown interviews found that individual resilience rarely restored engagement, especially for disadvantaged students, until recognition and some institutional structure returned. Those are different samples and different claims about what repair looks like.
Whether 'students adapted' is the story depends on whose interviews you read. Emergency-remote interviewees gradually adjusted after an unsatisfactory start. French lockdown interviews found that individual resilience rarely restored engagement, especially for disadvantaged students, until recognition and some institutional structure returned. Those are different samples and different claims about what repair looks like.
- What made emergency remote learning hard for students?
- Why did French students disengage online in COVID?
Study Role Design N Population Outcome What made emergency remote learning hard for students? Supports OtherSurvey plus interview/diary follow-up of ERL experiences in Finland and India N=138 · 138 university students across two pandemic waves University students in Finland and India during emergency remote learning Shared ERL challenges (schedules, distractions, peer communication) and moderate engagement Why did French students disengage online in COVID? Supports Qualitative / archivalSemi-structured interviews with students and staff about COVID emergency online learning N=19 · 19 students plus 7 teaching/administrative staff interviewed Jan–Apr 2021 French-speaking university students and staff across disciplines Mechanisms of disengagement and re-engagement when campus routines disappeared
PaperFren reads this as a limit on how far one study travels — different assays, populations, or outcomes — not a forced fight between papers.
Teacher and student interview accounts of the same blended courses did not always name the same community-building activities. EQUIP interviews and focus groups at Makerere judged a brief competency training feasible, with early ENACT-rating concerns easing — a practitioner-feasibility story, not an engagement-loneliness story. Interviews answer the prompt you wrote, not a single engagement construct.
Teacher and student interview accounts of the same blended courses did not always name the same community-building activities. EQUIP interviews and focus groups at Makerere judged a brief competency training feasible, with early ENACT-rating concerns easing — a practitioner-feasibility story, not an engagement-loneliness story. Interviews answer the prompt you wrote, not a single engagement construct.
Study Role Design N Population Outcome Sense of community in blended courses Supports Qualitative / archivalMulti-method case study of three Dutch blended courses (observations, LMS, interviews) N=3 · Three blended courses/teachers; nine observation sessions per course plus student/teacher interviews Teachers and students in three Dutch blended higher-education courses Perceptions of teaching/social/cognitive presence activities shaping sense of community Can EQUIP competency training fit a university course? Supports Qualitative / archivalFocus groups and interviews on EQUIP competency-based training in clinical psychology N=27 · 27 students, faculty, and practitioners Makerere University clinical psychology programme stakeholders Perceived feasibility and usefulness of embedded EQUIP competency-based training
PaperFren reads this as a limit on how far one study travels — different assays, populations, or outcomes — not a forced fight between papers.
Timeline
How understanding moved
Study years are when the paper was published. Evidence edits are dated changes to this page's claims. Explanations are when PaperFren added a Discovery — not a claim that the science happened that day.
2026
Concept page published
Semi-Structured Interview
Change log
What changed
Dated edits to this page's evidence: studies added or removed from a claim, claims added or withdrawn, and new explanations tagged here. Coverage edits are distinct from reviewed research changes and corrections. Dates record PaperFren updates; study publication dates appear in the timeline.
- Coverage updated · Concept page published
Papers
9 studies in this library bear on Semi-Structured Interview, ordered by citations.
- Emergency online teaching in engineering
A UAE College of Engineering case study documents students’ mixed reactions to sudden online migration and highlights instructor practices students preferred during COVID-19 remote delivery.
- Why do online disabled students feel lonely?
Self-paced online study can reduce stigma yet intensify loneliness when disability is misunderstood and informal connection is scarce.
- What made emergency remote learning hard for students?
Students in Finland and India reported many similar ERL challenges—schedules, distractions, weak peer communication—and only moderate engagement.
- Mobile messaging can deepen course discussion engagement
Compared with forum-style discussion, WeChat-based mobile instant messaging better supported interaction, relationships, and higher-level cognitive engagement in optional tasks.
- Why did French students disengage online in COVID?
Emergency online learning stripped away everyday campus constraints and recognition that many students needed to stay engaged.
- How does university teaching shape student wellbeing?
Across five subjects, students said wellbeing hinged less on wellness slides alone and more on scaffolded challenge, support, and social connection.
- Can EQUIP competency training fit a university course?
Students and faculty at Makerere University found EQUIP competency-based training feasible and useful for pre-service clinical psychology education.
- Sense of community in blended courses
In three Dutch blended courses, teachers and students described how teaching, social, and cognitive presence activities—often via flipped design—shaped a sense of community.
Show 1 more studiesShow fewer studies
- Evaluating Coaching-Based Mentor Training for STEM Students
A brief coaching-based training helped high school mentors improve their communication, regulate their emotions under stress, and feel more confident in their own STEM knowledge.
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Questions
What is still open
Whether 'students adapted' is the story depends on whose interviews you read. Emergency-remote interviewees gradually adjusted after an unsatisfactory start. French lockdown interviews found that individual resilience rarely restored engagement, especially for disadvantaged students, until recognition and some institutional structure returned. Those are different samples and different claims about what repair looks like.
Teacher and student interview accounts of the same blended courses did not always name the same community-building activities. EQUIP interviews and focus groups at Makerere judged a brief competency training feasible, with early ENACT-rating concerns easing — a practitioner-feasibility story, not an engagement-loneliness story. Interviews answer the prompt you wrote, not a single engagement construct.
Ask PaperFren about Semi-Structured Interview
Study this conceptflashcards and short-answer questions
Why is it a mistake to quote the nine disability-loneliness interviews as 'online study causes loneliness in disabled students'?
The interviews link asynchronous pacing to both reduced stigma and loneliness among nine students. They do not estimate prevalence, do not represent all disability types or institutions, and do not test an intervention that would reduce loneliness.
French interviews say individual resilience rarely restored engagement; the Finland/India mixed study says students gradually adjusted. How can both be faithful?
They sample different systems and ask different questions. The French analysis tracks lost spatial routines, recognition and disadvantage during lockdowns. The 138-student study catalogues challenges (132 with multiple) and moderate engagement after an unplanned shift, with a smaller interview/diary subset. Neither is a trial of designed distance programmes; they are not replications of one adaptation rate.
A wellbeing paper interviews 57 students from modules that already included wellbeing content. What causal claim is off-limits?
That embedding wellbeing in the curriculum reduced mental-health diagnoses or that those three themes are effects of a designed intervention. The modules were not a controlled wellbeing treatment; findings are perceptions at one London university in 2020–2021.
How should interview follow-ups after a 13% engineering-college survey be combined with the survey, and what still cannot be claimed?
Use the survey for the mix of excitement and stress among volunteers, and interviews with students and highly voted instructors to name valued practices and challenges. Do not claim that named tools causally maximise learning for all engineering programmes.