Each of the five practitioner-researchers wrote four to seven pages about their life experiences. They posted their writing on an electronic conferencing system, and responded to each other's writing. Sharing and responding helped them process their writing. Analysis of the autobiographies provided themes that the researchers used to develop questions for interviewing other practitioners.
Examples of documents are learners' writing, attendance records, test scores, tutors' written evaluations of workshops, minutes of meetings, lesson plans, etc.
You could do research using only document sources. For example, research about why people enroll in programs could be done from registration forms that ask why people enroll. You would need to consider whether people provided enough information to address your questions, and whether they had provided permission to use the information.
You could also use registration forms as one source, along with interviews. The forms might provide general trends for a large group, and the interviews would provide more in-depth information from some of the people.
Jane Power (2002) used documents as one method to research what new process would "help learners attend the non-credit (leisure or personal development) courses for which they have signed up" (p. 60). She used the learner data base to create a report about the number of courses learners had signed up for and which ones they attended. This gave her a way to identify people who regularly attended classes they signed up for and people who did not. The lists provided a basis for interviewing ten "super attenders" and ten "super non-attenders" (p. 60).
Julie Salembier (2002) also used documents as one method in her research about learning indicators. Julie reviewed
existing program related documents composed of attendance records, written feedback in post-course evaluations, and products of learners' accomplishments...such as passing the GED exam, creating a web page, writing clear memos, and producing a work-specific spreadsheet. (p. 21)