SJO's post has been removed and we'll be locking the thread. All research requests do have to go through our information team, otherwise they will be removed.
A forum I used to post on, we had guidelines for people wishing to do reserahc. You'd have to explain who you are and what your reserahc was for. For example, I did some research, I explained that I'm a student at the OU and I was looking at social media and the benefits / disadvantages it gives disabled people.
Further point sjo....assuming the moderators don't take the posting off before you see this, the point of your project is to demonstrate that you've achieved the outcomes of your course.
If YOU can get onto a community forum website for people on the spectrum and parents or carers of people on the spectrum, in order to do your project, it should occur to you that other people who have inappropriate intentions can also get on here.
Someone could fill in a convincing hoax response to your questionnaire and you might not know.
That's why this is an invalid research method. You cannot corroborate your respondents.
And its also appallingly bad research ethics, and frankly selfish and inconsiderate to those who use such forums for help.
I see sjo, but did you have permission from the Moderators before posting this, which is courtesy on a website if nothing else?
And how do we know you will do these things if there is no authorisation and we don't know which university and department. You could be a commercial organisation.
And how do you know the validity of your respondents?
