I am making use of a multiphase mixed-methods study to develop, implement and evaluate an injury surveillance system.
In the first study, I am making use of an exploratory sequential design, where the participant's perceptions (qualitative approach) will be used to build a context-sensitive framework, through which quantitative data (weekly survey) about injury rates can be captured (second study). Since the quantitative part is a longitudinal study, collecting data from the same population, I am also analysing the end-users engagement with the system, based on the weekly response rate.
At the end of this, I will be evaluating the surveillance system as a practical tool for end-users through qualitative data (third study). This will be done by analyzing response rates from the prior quantitative study and identifying a purposeful sample of participants based on their response rates and their engagement with the system.
Now, the question is, should I call this design a sequential explanatory one? I am confused as I am only using one outcome (weekly engagement) from the second study and trying to explain it through qualitative means.
It sounds you basically have a three-step design: qual --> QUAN --> qual. Such designs are quite reasonable but relatively rare. Hence, it does not have a standard name, but you might all it "an intervention study that includes both exploratory and explanatory components within a mixed methods framework."
My book on "Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods" includes a chapter on three-step designs.
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