Summary and Schedule
This lesson familiarizes learners with the application of open science principles to qualitative research and coding, with a focus on documents or transcribed text. Learners will practice working with secondary qualitative data from the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) in the free software QualCoder and discuss the options and limitations for open research with proprietary qualitative analysis packages, including options for sharing both source data and coded analysis projects.
Prerequisites
It is helpful, but not required, to understand some basic principles of open science prior to starting the workshop. A good place to start is this overview from Jonny Coates, part of a series of lightning talks for those interested in learning more about specific open science topics.
It is also helpful to be familiar with basic principles and practices in qualitative research, such as open and thematic coding.
No experience with qualitative software or QDR is necessary, but the lesson assumes participants have followed the setup instructions below before the workshop to install QualCoder and create a QDR account.
SECTIONS IN REDEVELOPMENT
Please note that some sections of the lesson (currently the last 2 episodes) are still being actively redeveloped to apply to QualCoder instead of Taguette. This note will be removed when conversion is complete.
Acknowledgments
This lesson was developed in part through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in collaboration with QDR, the Virginia Tech University Libraries, Library Carpentry, and the UCLA Library. We thank all contributors and reviewers.
| Setup Instructions | Download files required for the lesson | |
| Duration: 00h 00m | 1. Qualitative Data and QualCoder |
What can we learn from existing qualitative data? How is qualitative interview data typically structured? How can documents and projects be imported into QualCoder? |
| Duration: 01h 00m | 2. Best Practices for Qualitative Coding |
What is the difference between inductive and deductive coding? How can I set up and apply a flexible code tree in QualCoder? How can I code text and view coded text in QualCoder? ::: |
| Duration: 02h 00m | 3. Qualitative Data Analysis |
How can QualCoder help analyze coded data? What are some common approaches to analyzing qualitative data? ::: |
| Duration: 03h 00m | 4. Saving and Sharing Qualitative Data |
How can QualCoder projects be shared or archived in common data
formats? What are the advantages of sharing qualitative data? What can I do to continue learning? |
| Duration: 04h 00m | Finish |
The actual schedule may vary slightly depending on the topics and exercises chosen by the instructor.
In this workshop, we will practice analyzing qualitative data with the software QualCoder and a collection of interviews about data reuse published online. Please follow the steps below before the workshop to set up your computer.
Data Sets
The Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) is a free archive of qualitative and mixed methods data. Openly-licensed datasets can be downloaded for teaching or research, but require free registration. To register, visit the QDR homepage and click “Register” at the top right of the page and complete and submit the form on the next page. For questions about QDR and registration, please contact qdr@syr.edu.
During the workshop, we will walk through the process of navigating QDR to find and download our dataset, as well as importing it to QualCoder. Datasets are subject to the QDR license agreement. This workshop curriculum is openly licensed (CC-BY) for reuse and adaption.
Software Setup
We will use the free Coding and Qualitative Data Analysis software QualCoder throughout the workshop. QualCoder is a cross-platform tool that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Please find installation instructions for the most recent stable version (currently 3.6) on the QualCoder Wiki. The installers mentioned in the instructions can be found below the instructions on the Wiki page. Note that both Windows and Mac instructions have extra steps described in the wiki to ensure the app is fully installed with adequate permissions.