Using NVivo to Manage Qualitative Data. R e i d Roemmi c h R HS A s s e s s me n t Office A p r i l 6,

Transcription

1 Using NVivo to Manage Qualitative Data R e i d Roemmi c h R HS A s s e s s me n t Office A p r i l 6,

2 Introductions Please share: Your name Department Position and brief description of what you do

3 Presentation Outline What is Qualitative Data? What is NVivo? Importing Data Finding Themes and Analyzing Text Organizing Material into Themes Coding the Data Questions

4 What is Qualitative Data? Tends to be more descriptive in nature; relies more on observation than on measurement; focus on the individual story and thinking, feeling, emotions, etc.; usually involves small numbers If on a survey, gives the respondent a chance to answer the question in their own words Often gathered from focus groups, interviews, open-ended questions, etc. Examples of qualitative questions: Please describe your experience living in the residence halls. What do you think about your supervisor? What improvements would you make to this program?

5 What is NVivo? NVivo is a software program that allows you to work with and organize qualitative data NVivo can perform a number of different functions for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users One of the biggest strengths of the program is that it allows you to develop themes from the data which is an important function when dealing with unstructured and diverse responses Can be used by anyone who wants to organize or more closely examine qualitative data they have collected

6 NVivo Interface

7 Importing Data Can import all kinds of material: Spreadsheets Word documents PDFs Videos Audio Photos To import data: Go to External Data tab Choose the tab to whatever type of data you are working with (NVivo has Documents, Dataset, Audio, Video, Pictures, Memos Simply follow the wizard for importing the data

8 Importing Data Screenshots of what importing an excel spreadsheet (Dataset) looks like

9 Find Themes and Analyze Text Once data is imported, one of the first steps is starting to make sense of the comments by finding themes Some tips for finding themes: Word Frequency Query Tag Cloud Tree Map Text Search Query Simply sorting through the data yourself to find common words or phrases used

10 Find Themes and Analyze Text Tree Map Tag Cloud

11 Find Themes and Analyze Text The Word Frequency Query also allows you to find similar uses of a common term rather than just the exact phrase This screenshot shows what that end result looks like

12 Find Themes and Analyze Text If you find you are getting a lot of common words like a, and, the, etc. simply right click that word and choose Add to Stop Words List

13 Find Themes and Analyze Text The Text Search Query follows a similar process as the Word Frequency Query but also allows you to see the words in context rather than just in a stand alone format

14 Coding the Data NVivo uses the term Node to classify a category or theme To create a node once you have an idea of the theme or category you want to use simply go to the Create tab, click Node, and name your node based on the theme you discovered

15 Adding Data to Nodes Drag and drop Quick coding bar

16 Coding the Data What the data will look like once it s grouped under a node

17 Conclusion Once you have the data coded into nodes you can play around with many other different features not covered in this presentation The most powerful aspect of NVivo is the ability to translate large groups of text into a more meaningful and manageable format with the themes (or nodes) NVivo Tutorials on the Assessment Website page provide stepby-step walkthroughs on many different functions of the program

18 NVivo Tutorials Step 1: rhs.msu.edu Step 2: Click on Auxiliary Enterprises tab Step 3: Look under Assessment Office Step 4: Click on Assessment Resources Step 5: Under Software Guides click the link to NVivo Tutorial

19 Want to Access this Presentation Later? Step 1: rhs.msu.edu Step 2: Click on Auxiliary Enterprises tab Step 3: Look under Assessment Office Step 4: Click on Assessment Workshop Series Step 5: Find the relevant presentation suited to your interest

20 Questions, Comments?