The students were shy at first, she said, but by the end of the month they “really started to explore” the artistry of photography and editing. Madison Everett, a senior graphic design and SMAD double major, assisted Kvernen with the workshop and said she saw the high school students’ confidence grow throughout the course. And now, Kvernen said, she’s exploring how multinational people “combine those worlds and those lives and identities in one place and one person.” She moved to Harrisonburg from Vietnam a year ago. Kvernen said the idea for the class came from a personal project. Then, they’d talk about the photos and photography basics, such as point of view and leading lines. Typically, she said, they’d go out on the JMU Quad and take pictures on their smartphones. With $2,300 in funding from the JMU faculty senate, Kvernen taught two classes each week for about 15 students. “ sort of bringing to light that multinational, multi-place identity that we have here … in our community.” their life here and their life somewhere else,” Kvernen said. “The idea was to show images that combined. 24, and the gallery is open for walk-in visits Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. The exhibit, “Here + There: Exploring Multi-layered Identity Through Photography,” focuses on the dual identity of refugees. Now the fruits of that work are being shown in an exhibit at the Smith House Galleries in downtown Harrisonburg. And she was among a group of area students - including seven from Harrisonburg High School - who spent a month this summer practicing that art by taking pictures under the guidance of Elisabeth Kvernen, an assistant professor in SMAD. Now, she’s living in Harrisonburg and pursuing photography. A camera captures all the action close-up '¦ and broadcasts the action via video streaming to an unlimited number of viewers who can watch real-time from the comfort of their desktop computers at any time, in any place.' The completed focus group session can then be saved in computer-readable form for future use.A year ago, Mubara Mayar was living in Kabul, Afghanistan. Nonetheless, as business writer Alf Nucifora observed, 'the advent of video streaming technology now means that focus groups can be observed 'live' from the comfort of one's desk'¦. But equipment glitches, the logistical challenge of gathering observers at a central location, and the expense of purchasing and implementing this high-tech option made it a decidedly imperfect vehicle. Videoconferencing enabled companies to conduct focus group research without incurring major business travel expenses. Using the Internet as a medium to conduct focus groups is a logical-and vastly superior-successor to videoconferencing. One recent innovation in focus group research has been the emergence of online focus group sessions, which permit business owners and managers to directly observe group discussions without going to the time and expense of traveling to the locale in which the exercise is taking place. By providing qualitative information from well-defined target audiences, focus groups can aid businesses in decision making and in the development of marketing strategies and promotional campaigns. Nonetheless, many small businesses find focus groups to be useful a means of staying close to consumers and their ever-changing attitudes and feelings. In addition, the cost and logistical complexity of focus group research is frequently cited as a deterrent, especially for small companies. While focus groups can provide marketing managers, product managers, and market researchers with a great deal of helpful information, their use as a research tool is limited in that it is difficult to measure the results objectively. The focus group discussion is typically directed by a moderator who guides the discussion in order to obtain the group's opinions about or reactions to specific products or marketing-oriented issues, known as test concepts. A focus group is a marketing research tool in which a small group of people (typically eight to ten individuals) engages in a roundtable discussion of selected topics of interest in an informal setting.

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