Qualitative data analysis

I was talking with a fellow OUBS post grad about qualitative data analysis (QDAS). As she hadn't been using Nvivo, but Decision Explorer, she wanted to know if Nvivo would be more useful to her. We talked about its linking mechanisms, annotations and memos - those are what make NVivo really useful for me.

I demonstrated some of the ways I now work after doing that Silvana di Gregorio workshop.

• time stamp (Cntl shift T) - useful for journal
  
• memo for a coding journal
• right hand view instead of bottom view (view>detail view> right)
  
• Alt-F1 to remove / show left hand column
• creating and reading annotations
  

We received a manual at the workshop, which is very useful reference. Do the course to get the manual too. Silvana di Gregorio also writes books on QDAS as well as giving workshops.

The linking mechanisms are what make NVivo really useful for me. I annotate as I transcribe, or listen the first time to a transcription, or whenever. I use memos to link to collections of notes on facets of engagement, so I'm linking what I find in the cases with what I've found in the literature. This will help my later analysis as I write up the case studies for the dissertation.

Nvivo updated

I'm following Silvana di Gregorio's advice on anonymising my data in the analysis files so I shall soon be able to share the data with my supervisors, which will be interesting. I wonder if they'll look as closely at such electronic files as they do my writing.

I've also worked out how to attach memos to transcripts, but done so too enthusiastically as I hadn't realised where the links should be to annotations. Now I can annotate transcripts so each particular point that I want to comment on is linked to the particular annotation. It's really useful because as you read a transcript, ideas come to mind, ideas that may not require coding, but just thinking about and perhaps talking about with someone eventually, something to follow up later.

The other useful thing I've learned is to create an analysis journal under memos, with the time stamp against what I've done (cntrol shift T). This is useful to remind me how far I've got in anonymising, and what codes I might want to look at in future (like code against history or pre-conditions).