MONITORING & EVALUATION IN GLOBAL HEALTH

Mixed Methods Designs and Analysis

Lecturer: Nami Kawakyu

Introduction
In this lecture, we will take a deeper dive into mixed methods designs and analytical
approaches commonly used in program evaluation.

Mixed methods
Recall that the mixed methods evaluation design is a design which mixes both quantitative and
qualitative methods. Now that we have explored quantitative and qualitative data collection
and analytical methods, we can discuss the three commonly used mixed methods designs in
program evaluation: explanatory sequential, exploratory sequential, and the convergent
designs. Each of these explain the order in which quantitative and qualitative data are collected
and how they inform each other.

Explanatory sequential design

Let’s begin talking about the explanatory sequential design. In the explanatory sequential
design, quantitative data are first collected and analyzed, and then qualitative data are
collected and analyzed to help explain the quantitative findings.

Using our hand hygiene case study, we may find through a quantitative outcome evaluation
that some health facilities consistently had soap available at handwashing stations, while other
facilities consistently did not have soap available, despite the timely distribution of hand soaps
to all facilities.

In order to understand why there were differences across health facilities, we may choose to
collect qualitative data by interviewing health care workers and health facility managers to ask
them to explain what factors they believe contributed to the facility’s performance.

Thus, the qualitative data that is collected helps to explain the quantitative findings. Hence,
why this is called the explanatory sequential design.

Exploratory sequential design

Now let’s talk about the exploratory sequential design. In the exploratory sequential design,
qualitative data are first collected and analyzed to inform the collection and analysis of
quantitative data. This design is often used to inform survey development.

In our previous example, we described interviewing health care workers and health facility
managers to ask them to explain what factors they believe contributed to their facility’s
performance. In an exploratory sequential design, you would collect this qualitative information
first, to inform the data collection and analysis of the quantitative data, such as a survey to

Monitoring & Evaluation in Global Health online course

University of Washington 1
assess what percentage of healthcare workers and health facility managers believe each factor
contributed to facility performance. In this way, qualitative data is collected to explore a
phenomenon to inform quantitative data collection that assesses the extent to which the
qualitative phenomena apply to the population.

Convergent design
Another commonly used mixed methods design in program evaluation is the convergent
design. The convergent is also known as the concurrent or parallel design. In this design, the
quantitative and qualitative data are collected and analyzed in parallel, or during a similar time
frame.

Quantitative data collection and analysis will not necessarily inform the qualitative data
collection and analysis process, and vice versa, but findings from both can be used to compare
and support findings, something called “triangulation.” In the convergent design, once
quantitative data are analyzed using quantitative methods and qualitative data are analyzed
using qualitative methods, a third analytical step is conducted to assess the degree to which
these findings converge or diverge.

Let’s use the hand hygiene program as an example. The quantitative data collection and
analysis find that the program successfully distributed hand soap to 100% of facilities every
month for the first year. And you may also have qualitative data in which the health facility
manager describes how helpful it was to have a consistent, reliable supply of hand soap every
month. In this case, the quantitative findings converge, or align, with the qualitative findings.

But you may also have qualitative data that diverge, or differ, with this finding, in which health
care workers explain that they found that the availability of hand soaps at handwashing
stations was inconsistent across the months. In this case, you may want to review your
methodology and data to assess if there are potential sources of bias that are leading to this
disagreement. Or you may decide to do some follow-up data collection to understand why
there was this inconsistency. Through this, you may find that the refill jars were distributed
every month, but that the health facility did not consistently refill the hand soap jars around the
facility.

Mixed methods
Mixed methods is a powerful approach in program monitoring and evaluation. Mixed methods
harnesses the benefits of both quantitative and qualitative methods to inform data-driven
program improvements.

Conclusion
In this lecture, we discussed three mixed methods designs commonly used in program
evaluation: the explanatory sequential design, the exploratory sequential design, and the
convergent design.

Monitoring & Evaluation in Global Health online course

University of Washington 2