An Introduction to Analyzing Qualitative Data using NVivo

Transcription

1 An Introduction to Analyzing Qualitative Data using NVivo CRISTIN BATES, BATES COLLEGE NEAIR 37 TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY NOVEMBER 15, 2010

2 Goals for this Presentation How can NVivo be used to analyze qualitative data interview or focus group transcripts and open-ended survey responses? How I have used NVivo for a pilot assessment project. Additional features of the program. Walk through central features of the program together. Better understand how to code, import an attribute file, query your data, and present your results.

3 The Challenge of Analyzing Qualitative Data How do you take pages upon pages of text...

4 Q: I d like to start by asking you some general questions about your thesis. Was this a semester-long, year-long, honors thesis? GEO2: Um, this was a year-long thesis, the thing is for geology department, they only require well, it s a requirement for everyone to have a year-long thesis, so it s not like you have a choice on that matter, it s different. And in terms of the honors requirement, it, like they also said that the difference is not very vast itself, because the main difference are that you have to hand it in two weeks earlier, and you also have, well, you have the thesis defense, which is the other key component, but they still said that regardless of that, it s not very big compared to other departments, I guess it was more to tell you like, It s more up to you, like take the choice, don t feel pressured about anything else, so, yeah. Q: And how did you decide between doing the year long or the honors? GEO2: Oh, well, the year-long everyone had to do it, um, but the honors thesis, um, well I opted going for normal, and I feel, I felt the reason was, well, there were two reasons, the first one was that I couldn t, I didn t have enough like good information to back it up, at least that s what I felt the last time in the first semester when we were leaving, you still could choose, you had to choose second semester, so the first one we weren t sure about it, but I got the impression that my data was not sufficient, like well-founded to be defendable, so when you go to the panel, you really need good data to defend yourself, otherwise they kind of like kill you off, um, so that was one reason, and the second reason was that I was, I had already applied to grad schools that was my plan, and it really didn t matter whether I was honors or not, because whatever they were going to see on paper, was not going to be an honors or not, and so that s, if I got accepted then, the logic would be that whatever work I do in grad school will carry much more weight than the thesis I m doing right now, so that s why I simply decided not to. Q: What topic did you work on? GEO2: Um, so I guess the official fancy title is, Palostress Analysis of Mesozoic Fractures in the Salt Dykes in Tuckerman Ravine, it basically means that I went to the presidential range in New Hampshire, they have this the Tuckerman Ravine bowl, which has the Tuckerman Ravine trail, which is the most hiked trail in all of New England, so it s pretty cool, because there s a lot of people that go through there, but they don t know anything about the geology, at least the, the common people, so part of the investigation was to address some of the history of that bowl primarily through fractures, which are basically like cuts in the rocks, you can see a whole bunch of cuts in the rocks, and if you measure them, you can find that there are certain patterns, and well based on what we know, those patterns can be related to stress fields, and so based on the analysis of the fractures, seeing their orientations and dips would mean how they re heights and how they re tilted, um, you can find the stresses acting on that region. So in this particular case, the fractures happened through the Mesozoic, which is when Pangea was all together and it was

5 The Challenge of Analyzing Qualitative Data And turn it into a succinct report?

6 Office of Institutional Research and Assessment Support (207) TO: Beverly Johnson, Chair of the Geology Department FR: Cristin Bates, Assistant Director of Institutional Research DA: 11/12/2010 RE: Analysis of Geology Thesis Interviews INTRODUCTION In February 2009, Ellen Peters 87, Director of the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment Support and Judy Head, Associate Dean of the Faculty, began an assessment project to examine the senior thesis at Bates. Their aim was to help faculty learn more about how Bates can use the thesis to inform and improve its programmatic offerings. By May 2010 Ellen and Judy had worked with four departments anthropology, classical and medieval studies, geology, and mathematics to clarify each department s goals for the thesis and the major. Through these collaborative meetings, they drafted a table for each department that identified the goals for the major, for writing in the discipline, and for the thesis project. In May 2010 I expanded on Ellen and Judy s work by inviting seniors who wrote a semester-long, year-long, or honors thesis in those four majors (or took a mathematics senior seminar) to participate in a one-on-one interview. The interviews examined the thesis experience on a number of levels: preparation for the thesis, the advisor relationship, workload management, and reflections on the challenges, rewards, and learning outcomes of the experience. The interviews also explored students definitions of what it means to think critically in their major and their responses to the goals tables developed through Ellen and Judy s work (during the interview students were presented with their department s table and asked a set of question about it). What follows is a summary of the main findings from the interviews I conducted with three geology students. RESEARCH MODEL 18 interviews conducted with seniors from anthropology, classical and medieval studies, geology, and math departments o Interviews took place over 13 days from 5/5/10 through 5/21/10 3 interviews conducted with geology students Average interview length (of the 18 total interviews): 1 hr 17 min o Shortest interview: 46 min o Longest interview: 2 hrs 4 min A copy of the interview guide is attached to the end of this document. 1 1 Once I began interviewing students, I found that certain questions were more effective than others, so I edited the interview guide as I went along.

7 The Challenge of Analyzing Qualitative Data NVivo can help!

8 Background on my Assessment Project Senior thesis interviews pilot project: May interviews conducted with seniors from anthropology, classical and medieval studies, geology, and mathematics. Average interview length: 1 hr and 17 min Building off of existing assessment project. Student feedback on goals tables. Interview guide encompassed thesis experience.

9 Let s Get Started with NVivo Let s import an interview transcript into NVivo.

10 NVivo Functions We Will Explore Coding Querying Importing an attribute file of quantitative data. Querying your data. Presenting your results

11 Coding

12 Coding Creating nodes. Building up coding framework. Adding, deleting, moving, combining nodes. Coding and viewing the contents of a node. Uncoding, double coding. Keeping track of your coding with coding stripes and highlighting.

13 Querying

14 Querying Making connections Within your qualitative data Between qualitative and quantitative data. Three types of queries Text search Word frequency Coding comparison

15 Querying cont. Setting up an attribute file Additional data about your interviewees, focus group participants, survey respondents. Can import this into NVivo and use it to run other types of queries. 3 other types of queries Coding Matrix coding Compound Running a coding query using the attribute file and material I have already coded.

16 Presenting Your Results

17 Presenting Your Results Charts Model My presentation format and some preliminary results.

18 Preliminary Findings from My Pilot Study Students enjoyed seeing the goals table and the table s contents resonated with them. Timing and framing are key with the goals table. When to give to students: After thesis. Before or during thesis at discretion of advisor. When deciding on major or just after decided on major. Not a checklist.

19 References Richards, Lyn. (2008). Teach-yourself NVivo 8: the introductory tutorials. Retrieved from -articles_detail.aspx?view=402 QSR International. (2008). NVivo 8 Getting Started Guide. dler.ashx/relateddocuments/documentfile/289/n Vivo8-Getting-Started-Guide.pdf

20 My Contact Information Cristin Bates Assistant Director of Institutional Research Bates College (207)