The interview that I conducted went well for the most part, but I found that the person that I was interviewing had trouble answering a couple of our questions as they were planning on transferring out of Capilano. I found that it was difficult for me to get long answers without probing much more than I expected. It was quite the learning experience as I did not know what to fully expect as answers for the questions or if the subject would even be able to answer them. As I went through the questions, I realized that I would not be getting a full interview with the subject as they were planning on transferring to another school from Cap. They were unable to answer questions such as me asking how they felt about the mandatory graduation project and how they believe it will alter their experience. Their answer was that it would not affect them as they are going to transfer.
After interviewing the subject I found that some of the questions contained too short of answers, like “Why did you choose Cap?” and “How do you feel about the number of degrees offered?” These questions ended up being only answered with a couple of words and were very difficult to probe to find more meaningful responses. They were fairly easy to answer and were not very complex questions. Questions like “How will a Capilano degree differ from others?” was an interesting question as the subject believed that it would look less desirable than a degree from UBC for example, but still, they thought of the experiences they have had as all around positive and have enjoyed their time. Questions like that one which sparked a more controversial or strong opinion were effective in getting longer answers that drew more information. The subject was passionate about how Capilano can improve the number of bachelor degrees offered as the school is upwards of six thousand students. They believed that we should have more options with a student body of that size as it is difficult to find degrees at Capilano that are staple degrees at other schools. Again, more questions like “How do you feel about the number of diversity of degrees offered was much harder for the subject to answer as they have not explored the options as much as they could. The subject is planning on transferring and is just in their first year as a full-time student, therefore they have not experienced quite as many of the courses as they hope to so that they could answer the question fully. As a whole, I felt as though the questions that I asked could have been more oriented towards longer-form answers that would not require too many probing questions to gain more information.
I had a lot of difficulty coming up with probing questions on the fly that would help me accentuate the answers given by the subject. It is something that I would like to improve on as I was unable to make my interview as long as I would have liked to fill out this assignment properly. I think one of the things I succeeded with was when asking a question, making it very clear and concise. The subject had no difficulty understanding what the intent of the questions was and was able to quickly answer them.
Even with the seven planned questions that I had I still found it difficult to retrieve as much information as possible. I felt as though I was unprepared with asking probing questions after asking my main questions, this is something I would like to improve on for the next interview that I conduct. As a whole I believe I could have done a more productive interview if I had prepared more open ended and simple questions; I could have also asked questions that would relate to Capilano students as a whole, not just students that were continuing with their studies at other Universities. I enjoyed the project as it helped me realize how difficult conducting an interview truly is and how it can be very difficult, without lots of preparation, to gain answers that are extremely beneficial to your study. Without research and preparation it can be very difficult to receive responses that answer your questions exactly how you’d like.