Parking Patrol Thematic Analysis

Members: Shawna Meiners Trisha Fritz Kennedy Chester Bailey Schmidt Madeline Phelps Mitch Stengel Planning Notes

PARKINGPATROL

Research Question: What is the public’s feelings of parking on Illinois State

University’s campus?

For this assignment, we decided we were going to look at our transcribed interviews, as

well as archival posts we had previously collected this semester to familiarize ourselves with our

data. Our group used the work time in class to get as much done as we could. On Sunday, we

decided we did not need to meet at our usual group time because the beginning work for this

project could be done individually. To use our group time wisely, we decided to individually

code our transcribed interviews at home and have them ready by Tuesday’s class time. When we

met in class on Tuesday, we went through our initial codes and put them into themes by using

the “→” symbol to show we had done so. Then, we further analyzed the themes in which we

created to condense them even further to create clear, defined themes.

After searching for themes, we put together a chart to total up our findings. On our chart,

we divided our data into four categories: interview answers, twitter posts, reviews, and maps. We

then looked at our findings of our created themes and found seven predominant themes to put in

our chart. After totalling up our themes, we began to discuss our findings.

Ethical Considerations:

To create our thematic analysis, we used the data that we collected from our transcribed

interviews and our social media postings from our archival research. When using the different

data sets to complete our thematic analysis, we made sure to go back and check to make sure the

ethical standards were still in order. To comply with IRB standards, our group thought that it was

important to consider the following; consent, confidentiality and anonymity, compensation and

coercion, and risks and benefits.

When we conducted our interviews, we asked the interviewee for consent to record the

interview. We also made sure to not use any of the names of our interviewees to keep the

interviews confidential. The social media posts that we used were public postings, meaning they

could be viewed by anyone. We did not ask for consent to use the posts, but we made sure to

keep the posts confidential by not including the usernames and or profile pictures. By doing this,

we were able to keep the posts anonymous.

There was no compensation or coercion used with both types of data. We did not ask the

users to post about parking on Illinois State University campus, and we also did not give an

rewards to the interviewees. For the social media posts we simply searched for keywords that led

us to the posts. For the interviews, we asked students to participate in our interviews if they felt

inclined.

There were absolutely no risks or benefits with this data. The interviewees were told that

they had full control of the interview and could stop it at any time. The interviewees also knew

that they were not going to benefit from participating in the interview. While the posts that we

used were public and the users did not benefit from us using their posts.

We as a group believed that our ethical standards were kept high, allowing us to use this

data in our thematic analysis. We, as a group, had to first familiarize ourselves with all the data

which allowed us to create an initial code. We then looked for themes within the codes and

grouped the like themes together.

Initial Coding of Interviews: Interview 1 Code:

1. Mixed Feelings → Confused 2. Informative → Informative 3. Informative → Informative

4. Informative → Informative 5. Informative → Informative 6. Informative → Informative 7. Informative → Informative 8. Optimistic → Optimistic

9. Informative → Informative 10. Open minded → Optimistic 11. Upset → Unsatisfied 12. Informative → Informative 13. Upset → Unsatisfied 14. Valued → Valued 15. Self Conscious → Self Conscious 16. Upset → Unsatisfied 17. Informative → Informative 18. Informative → Informative 19. Upset → Unsatisfied 20. Informative → Informative 21. Optimistic → Optimistic 22. Optimistic → Optimistic 23. Upset → Unsatisfied 24. Upset → Unsatisfied

Total of Themes from Interview 1: Confused: 1→ Flexible

Informative: 11 Optimistic: 4 Unsatisfied: 6 Self Conscious: 1→ Flexible Valued: 1 → Optimistic

Interview 2 Code:

1. Grateful → Optimistic 2. Informative → Informative 3. Informative → Informative 4. Informative → Informative 5. Informative → Informative 6. Informative → Informative 7. Informative → Informative 8. Informative → Informative 9. Informative→ Informative 10. Conflicted → Understanding 11. Understanding of limitations →

Understanding 12. Informative → Informative

13. Informative → Informative 14. Future-oriented → Optimistic 15. Future-oriented → Optimistic 16. Informative → Informative 17. Understanding of limitations →

Understanding 18. Informative → Informative 19. Flexible → Understanding 20. Flexible → Understanding 21. Worried → Not Satisfied

Total of Themes from Interview 2: Optimistic: 3 Informative: 12 Understanding: 4 → Flexible Not Satisfied: 1 Interview 3 Code:

1. Discouraged→Not Satisfied 2. Informative→Informative 3. Informative→Informative 4. Informative→Informative 5. Informative→Informative 6. Informative→Informative 7. Informative→Informative 8. Frustrated→Upset 9. Informative→Informative 10. Annoyed→Not Satisfied 11. Informative→Informative 12. Annoyed→Not Satisfied 13. Informative→Informative 14. Informative→Informative 15. Informative→Informative 16. Annoyed→Not Satisfied 17. Frustrated→Upset 18. Annoyed→Not Satisfied 19. Conflicted→Not Satisfied 20. Informative→Informative 21. Frustrated→Upset 22. Conflicted→Not Satisfied 23. Frustrated→Not Satisfied

24. Discouraged→Upset 25. Discouraged→Upset 26. Informative→Informative 27. Informative→Informative 28. Informative→Informative 29. Informative→Informative 30. Annoyed→Not Satisfied 31. Frustrated→Upset 32. Annoyed→Not Satisfied 33. Informative→Informative 34. Frustrated→Upset 35. Conflicted→Not Satisfied 36. Understanding→Optimistic 37. Understanding→Optimistic

Total of Themes from Interview 3: Not Satisfied: 11 Informative: 17 Upset: 7 Optimistic: 2

Interview 4 Code:

1. Mixed feelings→Uncertain 2. Informative →Informative 3. Informative →Informative 4. Informative →Informative 5. Informative →Informative 6. Informative →Informative 7. Informative →Informative 8. Informative→Informative 9. No answer →Omit 10. Informative →Neutral 11. Informative →Neutral 12. Informative →Neutral 13. Frustrated → Unsatisfied 14. Conflicted →Unsatisfied 15. Frustrated →Unsatisfied 16. Informative →Informative 17. Informative →Informative 18. Relief → Satisfied 19. Angry → Unsatisfied

20. Relief →Satisfied 21. No answer → Omit 22. Conflicted → Unsatisfied 23. Relief → Satisfied 24. Frustrated→ Unsatisfied 25. Angry → Unsatisfied 26. Angry →Unsatisfied 27. Informative →Informative 28. Informative →Informative 29. Upset → Unsatisfied 30. Informative → Informative 31. Disgusted →Unsatisfied 32. Informative→ Informative 33. Upset → Unsatisfied 34. Upset →Unsatisfied 35. Satisfied → Satisfied 36. Unsatisfied →Unsatisfied 37. Unsatisfied →Unsatisfied 38. Upset →Unsatisfied 39. Angry →Unsatisfied 40. Excited → Satisfied 41. Frazzled→ Unsatisfied 42. Confident→ Satisfied 43. Upset →Unsatisfied 44. Annoyed →Unsatisfied 45. Angry →Unsatisfied 46. Annoyed →Unsatisfied 47. Informative → Informative 48. Informative→ Informative 49. Conflicted →Unsatisfied 50. Humorous → Neutral 51. Upset →Unsatisfied 52. Understanding →Neutral 53. Happy → Satisfied 54. Frustrated→Unsatisfied 55. Happy → Satisfied

Total of Themes from Interview 4: Informative: 18 Unsatisfied: 24 Satisfied: 8

Omit: 2 Uncertain: 1 Neutral: 2

Interview 5 Code: 1. Informative→ Informative 2. Informative→ Informative 3. Informative → Informative 4. Informative→ Informative 5. Informative→ Informative 6. Informative→ Informative 7. Informative→ Informative 8. Informative→ Informative 9. Informative→ Informative 10. Annoyed→ Unsatisfied 11. Annoyed→ Unsatisfied 12. Informative→ Informative 13. Unsatisfied→ Unsatisfied 14. Unfair → Unsatisfied 15. Annoyed→ Unsatisfied 16. Valued→ Satisfied 17. Valued→ Satisfied 18. Unfair→ Unsatisfied 19. Informative→ Informative 20. Informative→ Informative 21. Knowledgeable→ Informative 22. Impatient → Unsatisfied 23. Informative→ Informative 24. Informative→ Informative 25. Informative→ Informative 26. Annoyed→ Unsatisfied 27. Informative→ Informative

Total of Themes from Interview 5: Informative:17 Unsatisfied:8 Satisfied:2

Interview 6 Code:

1. Angry → unsatisfied 2. Informative → informative 3. Informative → informative

4. Informative → informative 5. Informative → informative 6. Informative → informative 7. Informative → informative 8. Informative → informative 9. Informative → informative 10. Informative → informative 11. Unsure → confused 12. Informative → informative 13. Straightforward → blunt 14. Informative → informative 15. Satisfied → satisfied 16. Satisfied → satisfied 17. Clarifying → informative 18. Angry → unsatisfied 19. Angry → unsatisfied 20. Informative → informative 21. No response → Omit 22. Angry → unsatisfied 23. Annoyed → unsatisfied 24. Nonchalant → neutral 25. Informative → informative 26. Informative → informative 27. Informative → informative 28. Informative → informative 29. Unsure → confused 30. Annoyed → unsatisfied

Total of Themes from Interview: 6 Informative: 17 Unsatisfied: 6 Confused: 2 → Upset Omit: 1 Satisfied: 2 Blunt:1 → Angry

Coding of Tweets (Archival):

1. Positive → Optimistic 2. Passive-Aggressive → Unsatisfied 3. Angry → Angry 4. Annoyance → Angry

5. Promotional → Informative 6. Frustrated → Angry 7. Concerned → Angry 8. Frustrated → Angry 9. Demanding → Angry 10. Frustrated → Angry 11. Confused → confused 12. Amused → satisfied 13. Informative → informative 14. Stressed → unsatisfied 15. Dramatic → unsatisfied 16. Innovative → Optimistic 17. Informative → informative 18. Humorous → satisfied 19. Annoyed → unsatisfied 20. Frustrated → unsatisfied 21. Frustrated → unsatisfied 22. Confused → unsatisfied

Total of Themes from Tweets: Optimistic: 2 Unsatisfied: 7 Angry: 7 Informative: 3 Satisfied: 2

Coding of Google reviews (Archival):

23. Satisfied → Satisfied 24. Dramatically upset → Unsatisfied 25. Satisfied → Satisfied 26. Unsatisfied → Unsatisfied 27. Angry → Angry 28. Unsatisfied → Unsatisfied 29. Unsatisfied → Unsatisfied

Total of Themes from Google Reviews: Satisfied - 2 Unsatisfied - 4 Angry - 1

Coding of Maps (Archival):

30. Informative → Informative 31. Informative → Informative 32. Informative → Informative

Total of Themes from Maps: Informative: 3

TABLE A.

Informative Satisfied Unsatisfied Angry Optimistic Flexible Upset Totals

Interview Answers

92 12 56 1 9 6 8 184

Twitter Posts

3 2 7 7 2 0 0 21

Reviews 0 2 4 1 0 0 0 7

Maps 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Verification: Audit Trail created, to be used during our final research report. Exemplar Identification: Informative: Theme in which the text or discourse was informing others about themselves or about parking.

Satisfied: Theme in which the text or discourse was positive in regard to Illinois State Parking. “ I think there could be more just to make it easier, but I’m satisfied with it because I understand that this is the best they can do.” Unsatisfied: Theme in which the text or discourse was negative in regard to Illinois State Parking.

Angry: Theme in which the text or discourse was resenting or not understanding of Illinois State Parking.

Optimistic: Theme in which the text or discourse is positively forward-thinking about Illinois State Parking. “I like the way the COB parking lot is, you pay for an hour but that’s the only place on campus that has that. So I feel like instead of trying to make more green lots, they should just just make hourly parking.” Flexible: Theme in which the text or discourse is understanding and accommodating of Illinois State Parking. “I mean, maybe if I was running late to class, but to be honest, if it really were to happen to where I needed to find another spot, I would just find another spot.” Upset: Theme in which the text or discourse is sad or negative emotion-provoking. “Just participation points, if you’re late to class you don’t get all of them. So I’ll lose some free participation points at the end of the year that would help my grade so very slightly but it still affects it.” APA-Style Summary To answer our research question “What is the public’s feelings of parking on Illinois

State University’s campus?”, our group analyzed previous qualitative research: our interviews

and archival research. For this portion of the analysis, our group formulated Table A. In order to

dissect the information, a table of the findings was an easy way to organize and clarify.

Our first finding states the majority of the public’s feelings of parking on Illinois State

University’s campus was primarily informative and unsatisfied. Once we transcribed our

interviews, we had numerous codes that ultimately resulted in a theme. Informative was a

repeated code - enough to make into its’ own theme. It also tells us that the majority of the public

is informed or knowledgable on the parking on campus. However the theme “unsatisfied” has a

flexible range of codes. The vast majority of the time, the general public’s feeling towards

parking at Illinois State University is unsatisfied and leaves the students and faculty desiring

more action from authority. On the contrary, the public did have satisfactory experiences with

Illinois State University's parking. Since there is a small portion of our sample that favor the

parking at Illinois State, the idea that ISU’s parking has potential to succeed, increases.

Our second finding states that we were more likely to get an honest feedback on the

public’s perception of parking via Twitter. A synthesis of the interviews concludes that

participants’ idea of parking on campus could have been tainted. Because the participant knew

the researchers were recording for a collegiate class ,(where it could have potentially been heard

by a staff member) they may have been uncomfortable displaying their real feelings of the

matter. However, on Twitter, users shared their opinion on parking without being prompted

unlike the interview.

The research question “What is the public’s feelings of parking on Illinois State

University’s campus?” was analyzed through interview responses and archival research.

Throughout the thematic analysis of our qualitative research, our group’s findings stated two

aspects: The public’s feelings towards parking is informed and unsatisfied and The channel that

is most likely to exemplify the public’s true feelings on parking is social media, but more

specifically Twitter.

Reflection and Future-Oriented Discussion

Working together to put our interview answers into universal codes and deciding on the

codes together in person worked very well for Parking Patrol. This worked best when done

together because everyone was able to bounce ideas off each other and better develop what each

response meant and how they were similar. This was interesting because everyone had different

viewpoints and opinions of what each answer meant so there were multiple ways each answer

was interpreted. Everyone remained extremely respectful of the ideas of others and every opinion

was taken into consideration, weather it was used or not.

There was some things that we had to work on as well. Towards the end of coding our

interviews, we ran into the issue of condensing them into smaller groups. This was because we

realized that we were using a lot of similar words like “angry” or “frustrated” that could basically

mean the same theme So if Parking Patrol redid this, we agreed that we would have to take a

closer look at what kind of protocol we would use when coding. Another thing that we brought

up has to do with the interviews. Due to the wording of some of the interview questions, the

answers that we received from the participants was sometimes confused. So in turn, we could not

code to the best of our abilities on their answers to the question.

So to fix these issues that we ran into above, we could all sit down as a group, like I

stated before, and really decide together by going through each one of the interviews and

agreeing or disagreeing on what each code the answer belongs under. As for the interview

questions, maybe there needed to be more practice and planning on the Parking Patrol side. This

means reading these questions out loud or asking them to someone that you are not interviewing

to get their feedback on if they understand the question we are asking to the full extent. So by

taking these steps, it will be a pretty easy thing to fix.

Overall, Parking Patrol put a lot of time and effort into the coding and making sure that

everything lined up correctly to try and answer our main research question: What is the public’s

feelings of parking on Illinois State University’s campus? As a group, we coded every sort of

media that we collected from the last analysis to keep it unbiased and to gather what the

population of Illinois State believes of the parking on campus.

Appendix: Interview Protocol

First and foremost, I want to thank you for your willingness to interview with me today.

My research group’s goal is to understand your experience and opinion of the parking on the

Illinois State University campus. Throughout this process, we are trying to find out perceptions

of parking, therefore please take as much time as you need and provide as much or little detail as

you prefer. Do I have consent to audio record the following conversation?

Please tell your story of a parking experience you have had on the Illinois State

University campus. I am interested in anything that you have to say and any opinions that you

have. Please take as much time, and provide as much detail, as you can.

This introduction has been adapted from Lindsay Thomas’ dissertation, “Fostering resilience:

exploring former foster children's narratives”, 2015.

Parking Interview Guide

1. What is your affiliation to Illinois State?

2. What is your affiliation to Illinois State?

3. What is your major, or was your major in college?

4. How often do you come to Illinois State’s campus?

5. How many RSO’s are you involved in?

6. How far away from a majority of your classes do you live (in minutes)?

a. How many minutes before class or work do you have to leave your place of living in order to get

to class on time?

7. How do you most often get to campus?

a. (If drive) Do you have a red or green parking pass?

i. How much money are you willing to spend on a parking pass?

ii. Are you satisfied with the parking available on campus?

iii. Where do you usually park on campus when you drive?

iv. What do you believe Illinois State University needs to adjust in accordance to parking on

campus?

v. What do you believe Illinois State University does well in accordance to parking on

campus?

vi. Do you believe you are fully informed of all of your parking options on campus?

vii. How often are you late to class?

b. (If walk/public transport/bike) For what reason do you transport this way?

i. If you had the capabilities to have a car on campus, would you choose to drive?

ii. When going to campus, does the weather affect your decisions on whether to go to

campus?

8. (Omit if participant walks to campus) How long does it take you to find a parking spot after arriving to

campus?

a. How long are you willing to wait for an open parking spot?

b. If you can not find a spot in the lot with your corresponding parking pass, are you willing to pay

for a parking spot a pay lot?

i. Would weather affect your decision on paying for a parking spot?

c. To what extent will you go to avoid paying for parking?

8. Have you ever been late to an obligation on campus because of the parking available?

a. Has your grade or work been impacted as a result of being late to class due to limited parking options?

Individual Reflections Shawna Meiners:

So far, our main group’s struggle is to stay on task. Throughout the work day on

Thursday, we buckled down and were able to accomplish many tasks on our agenda. We finished

our raw data and distributed roles. Since we did not meet on Sunday during our weekly meeting,

we knew we needed to stay on task and I think we did a great job completing tasks on Thursday.

Each group member contributed to the coding and to the analysis of thematic analysis. I think

that in the midst of a hectic portion of the semester, we’re all on the same page. We really take

advantage of any extra time inside the classroom. I think across the board of each analysis,

thematic analysis has been the most evenly spread. Normally, there is one person in each

analysis that steps up- but this analysis, everyone agreed without hesitation.

For this assignment, I dedicated myself to the APA Summary. I wanted to talk about

what our findings could mean. I think talking to my group members about the conclusions we

drew, really help my understanding of the entire project. I’m not sure if my group members

agree, but I feel like this entire semester is coming full circle.

Trisha Fritz: As we are getting close to the end of the semester I appreciate everyone’s time and effort

put into Parking Patrol more and more. For this analysis, we decided to each code our own

transcribed interviews personally outside of class to save time. This allowed us to spend time in

class doing the things we needed to as a group like deciding who should do what pieces of the

analysis. Then, we used majority of our in class time on Tuesday to sit down together, and begin

grouping each of those codes into smaller sections to make it easier to code. Then, we all sat

together and decided upon what code our tweets and yelp reviews would fit in best. Since we did

not meet on Sunday because we decided to do individual work, I believe that we were fairly on

track.

Each group member has contributed greatly in this project and in all the past ones. There

was really no time to sit and mess around during the time we had so I believe that we did a really

great job this time. What we did as separate group members pretty much remained the same. I

again did future oriented discussion with Kennedy because we both believe we are getting a

really good handle on things that we did correctly and things that we can improve within each

analysis and we are portraying that well within that section. A big thank you to Parking Patrol for

always pulling together during these, I can’t wait to finish out the semester strong!

Madeline Phelps:

This project was a little tricker in the sense it sort of creeped up on us. We luckily had a

plan of attack to stay on track, but it still felt like we were rushed a bit. We decided to do some

work ahead of time individually because we did not need to be together as a group for that part.

We didn’t mean on Sunday like we usually do because we felt we could have the work we

needed done by Tuesday on our own time. We each looked back on our transcribed interviews

and went through line by line to code the responses. We put them in our shared document so we

could discuss our findings when we met for Tuesday’s class.

When we met for Tuesday’s class, we went through our codings and put them into

themes.We totaled up the themes and Mitch created a lovely chart to put our findings in. We then

split up the analysis like normal, except this time I went back to the planning notes while Shawna

did the APA summary. I felt more comfortable with the planning notes, as I previously had a

tendency to incorporate more of our planning into the APA summary, rather than our findings.

Bailey Schmidt:

For this assignment I was asked to complete the ethical considerations section. Like

previous assignments, my group and I split up the work we are able to work more effectively.

Each group member is able chose what section they would like to work on and the group then

gives input on how to complete the section. Like I said before, this method has shown time and

time again to work best for our group. We are able to then work independently, but come

together when questions arise. We do tend to distract each other, so we work better when we are

alone. My group continues to be great and help when help is needed. I would not say that we

had any failures while completing this assignment, just pure success. Below is a detailed list of

all the contributions to the assignment.

Trisha: Reflection and Future-Oriented Discussion

Kennedy: Reflection and Future-Oriented Discussion

Madeline: Planning Notes

Shawna: APA Summary

Mitch: Important Raw Data

Kennedy Chester:

For this assignment, Trisha and I once again split the work of completing the Future-

Oriented Discussion. As an individual group member, I made sure my reflection and Future-

Oriented Discussion were both completed by the due date my group decided on together. As an

individual, I was also responsible for coding my interview answers on my own time, which I also

had completed by the designated due date. As a whole, my group worked extremely well

together when it came to respecting others ideas and interpretations of interview answers.

Coming up with the more broad codes that our sub codes could fall under was challenging at

times because there were so many opinions being presented. Parking Patrol however, did not

have too big of issues with this because we are all respectful of one another's opinions.

Mitch Stengel:

Thematic analysis was one of the most group-oriented analyses that we’ve had to do,

which meant a lot of class time was used in order to create our final pieces. My individual work

revolved around the individual data and the verification procedures that we endured. I made sure

that we had an audit trail going from the very beginning that could be referenced in our planning

notes, and I have a decent grasp on APA-Style by now, so I was the formatter and editor of the

analysis, which I generally am.

As a group, we all worked together very cohesively, per usual. We had to spend a lot of

time in class completing the data, as everyone coded their own interviews. Then, as a group, we

had to go through all of our Archival research and code those from scratch as well, something

that was above and beyond what we had done during the last analysis. I then created Table A.

and synthesized the data for my group so that they could get their sections done as well. Then,

everyone wrote their individual parts, and I went through and touched base with every person on

their sections to ensure that we were all on the same page, and edited the analysis. We’ve done

SO much good work together as a group, and now it’s time for the final product!