Please forward to interested colleagues and students.

 

You are invited to attend a lunch-hour presentation and discussion with Dr. Megan Woods, a visiting scholar from the University of Tasmania, and Dr. Trena Paulus, associate professor in educational psychology and counseling.

 

WHERE: July 2, noon-1pm, 520 Greve Hall

 

WHAT: Qualitative data analysis software: Apples and oranges, or grapes on the same bunch?

 

When deciding whether to use qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) researchers need to be able to determine how programs add value to their research so they can decide whether to use software at all, and if so, which program to use. But comparing programs and the value they create is complicated by the diversity of programs, features and analytical approaches they support. This presentation aims to help researchers understand the generic and program-specific advantages of QDAS by comparing the features and outputs of two specific programs: NVivo and ATLAS.ti. We will first provide an overview of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis and then illustrate how analytical functions are performed using NVivo and ATLAS. We conclude with an open discussion of user experiences with these and other programs (such as QDA Miner).

 

WHO: Megan Woods & Trena Paulus

 

Dr. Megan Woods is a lecturer in the Faculty of Business at the University of Tasmania in Tasmania, Australia. Megan has a passionate interest in qualitative and mixed method research methodologies which utilise QDAS programs. Over the last ten years she has trained over 200 researchers to use NVivo and its predecessor program, NUD*IST and for the last eight years has also taught a graduate research course at the University of Tasmania in qualitative data analysis using NVivo. She is currently researching the forms of technical and practical wisdom which inform and result from the use of QDAS programs, and investigating with Dr Trena Paulus the current and best practices in reporting computer-assisted qualitative data analysis. 

 

Dr. Trena Paulus is an associate professor in the department of Educational Psychology & Counseling at the University of Tennessee. She coordinates the graduate certificate in qualitative research methods in education and teaches courses in the online instructional technology M.S. program. She has been teaching and researching with ATLAS.ti for the past five years, is lead author of the forthcoming text from Sage, Digital Tools for Qualitative Research, and offers a special topics graduate course of the same name.