Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.

Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.

No part of this slide presentation may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever

without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

2nd Computer-aided Qualitative

Research 2011 Pre-conference Workshop

Dr. Elson Szeto

The Hong Kong Institute of Education

24 February 2011

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.

Understandings of the CAQDAS workflow

Enhancement of handling collected

qualitative data with the use of

the CAQDAS

Better consideration of choosing

the CAQDAS

Making informed choice of CAQDA

in processes of qualitative analysis

2

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

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tility and practic

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. ©2011 by Elso

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Comparison of the CAQDAS: ATLAS.ti 6

and NVivo 8 workflow

Differences and similarities

A case study

Lesson learned

Better consideration

Methodological utility

Practical usability

Making the informed choice

Researchers’ recommendations

3 simple rules

3

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

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tility and practic

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. ©2011 by Elso

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ATLAS.ti 6 NVivo 8 -> 9

Environment Hermeneutic Unit (HU) Project

Data format

To be demonstrated in the workshop

Management

Exploration

Reflection

Analysis

Report

4

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.5

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.

Text: MS Word, RTF, TXT, PDF...

Image: JPG, PNG...

Video: AVI, WMV, MPEG I…

Audio: WAV, MP3…

Web page: External links…

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Comparin

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Various types of data formats imported into ATLAS.ti opened

one-after-one in a single window.

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

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. ©2011 by Elso

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served.8

Various types of data formats imported into NVivo.

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.

ATLAS.ti

PDs

Free Codes

Families

Super Families

Relationships

Survey

Networks…

9

NVivo

Internals/

Externals

Free Nodes

Tree Nodes

Cases/Casebook

Relationships

Matrices

Model

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.10

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.11

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.

Memos

Annotations

See also links

Hyperlinks

document links…

12

Comparin

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and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

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. ©2011 by Elso

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ll rights re

served.13

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.14

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

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. ©2011 by Elso

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ATLAS.tiReport outputs of PDs, Code Families, Coding, Quotations or Memos etc.

RTF or TXT formats

Network views in BMP or EWM formats

NVivoReports of Project, Source, Node, Relation, Attribute and Coding summaries

Word, RTF, Excel, PDF, HTML formats

Individual document sources can be output in Word, RTF, Excel, PDF, HTML

Media data must be in HTML format

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Comparin

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and NVivo: M

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tility and practic

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Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.17

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

eto. A

ll rights re

served.

ATLAS.ti 6 NVivo 8 -> 9

Environment Hermeneutic Unit (HU) Project

Data format

So…? (to be continued in the workshop)

Management

Exploration

Reflection

Analysis

Report

18

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

ethodological u

tility and practic

al u

sability

. ©2011 by Elso

n Sz

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ll rights re

served.

Adapting CAQDAS in a qualitative research study

Methodology – evolving alongside the study

P.1 - Position: insider

P2 - Lens: social constructionism

P3 - Design: a mixture of ethnography, participatory

observation and grounded theory

P4 – Evidence: interview transcripts, field notes;

visual artefacts; documents

P4+ - CAQDAS adaptation: Led by grounded theory

in the process of analysis in ATLAS.ti 5

P5 – Report: A curriculum framework of a discipline

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Source: Hutchison, Andrew John , Johnston, Lynne Halley and Breckon, Jeff David(2010) 'Using QSR-NVivo to

facilitate the development of a grounded theory project: an account of a worked example', International

Journal of Social Research Methodology, 13: 4, 283 — 302.20

Comparin

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‘...Actually, from a programmers stance, Glaser was very

positivistic about grounded theory work...’

‘…Strauss was more post-positivistic…’

…and what else…?(to be continued in the workshop)

* Source: A working paper of Szeto

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Comparin

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‘…Explore, examine and interpret understandings and

meanings embedded in collected data…’

‘…A flexible research methodology, method or device

utilitised by researchers for a variety of research studies…’

‘…Interpretations grounded in data…’

‘…Generate theories or conceptual model/framework to

understand the field being investigated…’

* Szeto, E. (2010), ‘Framing an integrated framework of design curriculum in higher education:

understandings, meanings and interpretations’, Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education

9: 1, pp. 75–93, doi: 10.1386/adch.9.1.75_1

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‘...Positivistic logic and computer coding logic are very

similar..’

‘…the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and how flexible it

is…are extremely important distinctions…’

…and what else…?(to be continued in the workshop)

* Source: A working paper of Szeto

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Comparin

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and NVivo: M

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How do qualitative researchers

make their informed choice of CAQDAS

for their research studies?

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Comparin

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Qualitative research as process (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; 2005)

Phase 1: The researcher as multicultural subjects [Researchers’ position]

Phase 2: Theoretical paradigms and perspectives [Researchers’ lens]

Phase 3: Research strategies (her/his design)

Phase 4: Methods of collection and analysis [Researchers’ evidences]

[Phase 4+: CAQDAS in processes of analysis i.e. CAQDAS adaptation]

Phase 5: The art, practices, and politics of interpretation and presentation [Researchers’ reporting]

25

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Diagram 2: CAQDAS in processes of analysis (an example of NVivo 8)

Comparin

g ATLAS.ti

and NVivo: M

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tility and practic

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. ©2011 by Elso

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served.

ATLAS.ti NVivo

Methodological logic

To be discussed in the workshop…

CAQDAS programming

logic

CAQDAS graphical

user interface (GUI)

Personal reflections

on the use of the two

CAQDAS

27

Comparin

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and NVivo: M

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. ©2011 by Elso

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Weitzman (2000) suggested 6 key considerations:

What kind of computer user am I?

Am I choosing for one project or for the next few years?

What kind of project(s) and database(s) will I be working on?

What kinds of analyses am I planning to do?

How important is it to you to maintain a sense of “closeness” to your data?

What are your financial constraints when buying software and the hardware it needs to run on?

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Comparin

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and NVivo: M

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Ezzy’s (2002) notion of making choice

of CAQDAS:

‘[q]ualitative data analysis cannot be done by a

computer. CAQDA software only facilitates the

analysis’ (p.111).

Research methods adopted for research studies

Types of data collected from field works

29

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Presented at the Asia-Pacific conference on

Computer-Aided Qualitative Research

24 & 25 Feb 2011, Macau SAR

For more information about our upcoming conferences

Please visit: http://www.merlien.org