QSR NVivo 10 and the Emergent Future of Qualitative Research

I have just spent the last few days with many of the QSR North American gang--staff and trainers--and it has been very invigorating.  I love being with "my tribe", meaning those who are geeky about the technologies of qualitative research.  This group definitely qualifies. 

Thursday (8/2) and Friday (8/3) I was sitting in the background at an Nvivo 10 training, absorbing information about what is changing with the package. 

Saturday (8/4), I had the opportunity to meet with staff and official trainers to participate in a day-long discussion of issues related to using NVivo software, new horizons in software of this sort, and confirmation of qualitative research geeky techiness.  AWESOME!!.  Thank you QSR for making this opportunity possible. 

Cindi Jacobs, QSR Training Manager for the Americas--a fantastic hostess--setting a great pace for the entire daty. 

Joe Fisher, UMass-Lowell  Digital Librarian, talking with 

Raewyn Bassett and Laura Langendyk, two NVivo trainers from Canada

 Joe and I presented about the issues emerging in the realm of archiving qualitative research data (more on that later). 

Raewyn presented a very interesting paper:  NVivo as Conceptual Space for Analysis.  She has been interviewing NVivo users and examining how they talk about their practice as well as thinking about the visual and auditory ways we use NVivo and how we are working with the tool and our notions of qualitative research practice.  I found it very, very interesting. 

Rob Calcagni QSR, General Manager, Americas with Jennifer Patashnick, Carol Rheaume, and Asher Beckwitt

We appreciated having Rob and the other staff members with us--it was a great chance to ask questions and exchange information.  

 Asher ran a great round table on issues related to coding and interpretation.  I came away with lots of food for thought. 

Left to Right is Stuart Robertson (QSR staff person) with Guenther Krueger (a trainer from Vancouver BC) and Kristi Jackson (trainer and owner of QUERI)

 Stuart played many roles during the three days--as a trainer and co-facilitator.  His humor was greatly appreciated. 

Here is Kristi Jackson with attitude talking about a  on conducting team based chapter from her upcoming book on NVivo with Pat Bazeley

I can't wait for their book to come out--Sage, early 2013?  It will be very valuable for those who are trying to use NVivo in a useful way. 

Thank you QSR.  It was a great day(s).  I hope we can have more of these in the future. 

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: NVivo Tasters

Image via WikipediaThe Qualitative Research Network(QRN) at UMass-Lowell has revived the "NVivo Tasters". 

We did this several years ago when we had a bumper crop of doctoral students in the Graduate School of Education who were NVivo savvy.  Our site license was new and we wanted to get professional development out to the many people on campus who had been using the product on their own, sometimes unsuccessfully.  We offered a  1 hour session with an NVivo expert to all takers.  Your expert would help you where ever you were--if was project set up, project reshaping--whatever, you had 1 hour.  Well, it was like potato chips--most people couldn't stop at one. 

That group graduated, and things moved on, but with the shift of QRN to the Center for Women and Work, and new NVivo savvy grad students, we decided to try it again.  We are offering 12 one-hour slots to any takers on campus.  Myself and two doctoral students from the Graduate School of Education are the staff for this. Once the word tricked out, the response was immediate. 

I did my first taster last week with two faculty members from the School of Nursing, and WOW!!  did I have fun.  It's dangerous to loose a data hog like myself on other faculty members.  I so love to wander in the halls of data as they are available to one through qualitative data analysis software.  I twitch and slobber thinking about the thrills that are opening to me.  I don't care what the topic is, I just want at their data. 

These sessions start out with a description of the project from the person who has requested the taster.  As I listened I found my eye continually drawn to the computer where I could see the data set up.  Usually I start by looking at sources--but the real piece de la resistance--is always the node section.  I can't wait to get in there.  In this case there were lots of a priori nodes...that had an implicit connection to the protocols...but needed a push to make that explicit connection.  Piece of cake. 

But this let me talk about node trees, shaping and pruning your tree.  I remind myself of my mother's TV repairman who was possessed by model trains.  I have the same intensity about node trees--mine and every other one I can get my hands on. 

The hour flew by.  I was so disappointed to realize it was over (though my faculty friend may have been glad to be released to process the whole thing).

NVivo Tasters have been great for introducing faculty and graduate students to each other's work.  As you are discussing the set up of the project, you inevitably open up many other issues--from the problems with recruiting, hilarious stories about conducting research, and the struggles with interpretation. Sitting together looking at the project that is visible to both of you (thanks to the qualities of qualitative data analysis software) is like sitting around a campfire staring into the flames.  You are warm, relaxed, and available to sharing about something that is important to both of you. 

Long live the NVivo Taster!  And Happy Thanksgiving! 

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Another Great Brown Bag

Image via WikipediaToday our qualitative research brown bag featured Pia Markkanen from the Department of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.  Pia made a presentation on the mixed method study that became the Journal of Occupational Environmental Medicine (JOEM) article--"There's No Place Like Home: A Qualitative Study of the Working Conditions of Home Health Care Providers".  It was fascinating!

Pia described the qualitative to quantitative to qualitative interactions of the study like a dance.  Project SHARRP,as she called it, Safe Homecare and Risk Reduction for Providers, was funded by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Like it's name, Project Sharrp focused on accidents with sharp instruments in home health care and the issues related to blood borne pathagens. 

Her audience of qualitative researchers was interested in all the nitty-gritty detail, from how she selected participants and gained informed consent to the development of focus group questions and integration with quantitative data.  For more informationon this excellent study, contact Pia!  

In the course of this work, Pia has become a daily user of NVivo.  We didn't get a chance to look into her project, but she showed how coding was reflected in the article's charts, and she shared an NVivo model with us. 

Our last brown bag of the Fall 2011 semester will take place on Tuesday, December 13 from 12:30-1:30 pm.  Steve Tello and Yi Yang from Management will present.  We will be meeting in Southwick 240 on North Campus. 

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Brown Bags Fall 2011

Qualitative Research Network (QRN):        Fall 2011 Brown Bags

12:30-1:30

Bring Your Own Lunch

No Reservations or RSVP

Just Come and Engage!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011,  12:30 pm-1:30 pm

Rm 513, O’Leary Library:  South Campus

Pia Markkanen

Research Professor
Department of Work Environment

Using Qualitative Research Methods in Occupational Safety and Health - A Case Study on Bloodborne Pathogen Exposures in Home Healthcare. 

Dr. Markkanen’s Brown Bag talk focuses on using qualitative research methods in occupational safety and health (OSH) through a case study on bloodborne pathogen exposures in home health care. The talk describes through a case study how qualitative research methods (i) strengthen quantitative findings in OSH, (ii) help characterizing hazardous occupational exposures; and (iii) lead towards better understanding of the cultural context in which the study population experiences occupational hazards. 

Tuesday, December 13, 2011, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm

Southwick 240:  North Campus

Steven F. Tello, Ed. D. Associate Professor Management & Entrepreneurship

Yi Yang Assistant Professor Operations & Information Systems

How Nascent Entrepreneurs Leverage Networks and Resources in a University Incubator

This study utilized the setting of a technology incubator  to analyze how nascent entrepreneurs develop and leverage networks to secure resources as part of the venture creation process. Over the course of one year, we interviewed, observed, and tracked the progress of six medical device entrepreneurs as they accessed the resources and networks associated with this incubator.  Using qualitative methods, we examined how nascent entrepreneurs use networks to obtain needed resources, the types of internal resources and external networks pursued by hese entrepreneurs and differences among entrepreneurs based on their level of network skill.   We will discuss our methods, our use of Nvivo, as well our findings.

The brown bag lunches are purposefully informal.  These are places to bring your half-baked ideas, excitement, concerns, and hopes about the projects with which you are working.  Participants are present to listen, learn, and support. 

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Brown Bag on "Giving Birth to Theory in Qualitative Research: Adolescents and the Sexting Continuum"

Image by Sally L. Smith via FlickrThe UMass-Lowell Qualitative Research Network sponsored its third brown bag for the Fall 2011 semester (November 8, 2011: 12:30-1:30).  We (the Sexting Project) were the featured project.

The Sexting Project is a three-state, interdisciplinary study of teens views of sexting (and the parents and educators who work with them).  It was funded by the Department of Criminal Justice.  We are about 2/3's through our data collection activities (surveys and focus groups).  We have collected data from 20 youth focus groups (123 individuals); 4 parent focus groups (5 more to go); and we still have 3 groups of educators and criminal justice professionals to interview. 

Our focus for the brown bag discussion was "Giving Birth to Theory in Qualitative Research:  Adolescents and the Sexting Continuum".  The topic was an answer to the hardball question musicologist Alan Williams lobbed at me at the end of the last brown bag--"How do you create a theory from your qualitative research data?" 

To explore the question, our group decided to trace the evolution of our notion of the sexting continuum.  The sexting continuum is our understanding of teens' responses to why sext?  We were surprised to learn that many had positive or unagressive reasons that they thought one might sext (you don't get pregnant or std's, for example).  On the opposite end, there was limited discussion from teens about overtly agressive behavior in regard to sexting.  The teens we talked to were not at all interested in relationships with strangers on the Internet...their connections were about people they knew.

What was very interesting is that the largest category was the squishy stuff in the middle--that wasn't quite one or the other--it implied agression or coercion, but teens were reluctant to label it that way.  Instead, they talked about joking with each other, trying to attract someone. 

So, the continuum is our theory that is growing as we delve more deeply into the data and talk with others about the meaning of what we are finding. 

Those who attended raised some very interesting questions that included:

• thinking about the narratives in which sexing is embedded (discourse formations)
• thinking about the technological literacy that is required of teens
• the notion of sexting as a rite of passage
• the aesthetics of sexting (how do people chose how to present themselves in these situations)

What was very exciting for me was to hear our two Emergent Scholars on the project, talk about the work they have been doing.  They did a great job describing how they were working with the project in NVivo and what they were learning about research in the process.  Nice job Mary Ann and Lindsay.

 Thanks also to Shanna, our fantastic graduate assistant, and the special insight she brings to the work.

We have two great talks coming up in the second part of the semester...more on that next!  

Qualitative Research Network at UMass-Lowell: Brown Bag on using NVivo as a tool for organization and analysis with undergraduates

Image by Imajica Amadoro via FlickrOK--the title is way too long, but the presentation was just right.

Today:  Tuesday, October 25, 2011 from 12:30-1:30 pm Ellen O'Brien, Graduate School of Education and instructor in the undergraduate Honors Program, did a brown bag presentation on using NVivo software to help students prepare to write their honors theses (or capstone projects).

Ellen described her goals and tasks for the class and the way it unfolded.  Her class is a cross-section of majors on campus, but without significant experience with literature reviews, development of a thesis or in-depth research.

In this course, NVivo is an organizational tool.   Identifying a topic and developing an understanding of its components included drawing or modelling a "web".  These were imported into NVivo and students coded the ways that each "webbed" their ideas, leading to a rich discussion of how they used thinking tools. 

Literature searches were conducted, articles identified, and uploaded into NVivo where students used the query tools to further refine their understanding of the topic.  [This is a great way, I thought, to teach about the query tools using a nice, relevant little data base of your own selection.]

It was interesting to hear how engineering students brought in computer models and coded them--adding a new tool to their arsenal.  It sounds like in her class she has been able to generate some cross-campus, inter-disciplinary thinking in just a few weeks.

Her talk led to thoughts about--how could NVivo be used to help undergraduates develop electronic portfolios?  How can we help faculty who are not qualitative researchers, per se, to use this tool for things that are appropriate for their area?  What would make it safe for them to listen and get the message?

An undergraduate was actually at the Brown Bag, one of our "Emerging Scholars" and she said that if she had learned this tool early on in her undergraduate career... "It would have made me a more rounded 21st century student."   She is now learning about it in her senior year and considering developing an electronic portfolio of her undergraduate work that could help her in her bid for a doctoral program.  She hopes that knowing this kind of technology will help to set her apart on her application for graduate school in the social sciences.  

The next Brown Bag will be Tuesday, November 8, 12:30-1:30 pm in 513 O'Leary Library and UMass-Lowell.  I will be presenting on the Sexting Project.  I have a special request to think/talk about:  How do you generate theory?  Join us--it's fun.