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| Video Code # |
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| Student Gender |
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| Student Program of Study |
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| Subject matter/topic |
| What happened in the Video? (2) |
| 1 |
st Cycle Descriptive
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| 1st Cycle Concept |
| 2nd cycle |
Patterns
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| My Notes |
| Transcript |
| The Transcript |
| Directions: For each video you chose, type in the following information, extracted from your video field notes guide. Put the data of one video per tab. |
| The numbers above correspond to the directions below. |
| 1. Create a video code number, so the identifying information will not be visible in this record. |
| 2. Indicate speaker’s gender |
| 3. Indicate speakers program of study |
| 4. Briefly describe the subject matter or topic of the video. |
| 5. (a) Under the sub-heading “My Notes”, copy each sentence describing a “fact” of the video (#2 from your Notes guide) into one cell of the spread sheet. Use the “wrap text” function for readability. |
| 5 (b) Under the sub-heading “Transcript”, select sections of text from the video
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| transcript |
, again placing each one in a cell of the spread sheet.
| 6-7. Using the techniques from your Saldana text and the coding videos, code each line with two
| 1st cycle |
and one 2nd cycle codes.
| 8. Create a short statement or phrase summarizing your reflexive notes (#4 from your guide). |
Video 1
Video Code # Student Gender Student Program of Study Subject matter/topic
| What happened in the Video? (1) |
| 1st Cycle Descriptive |
1st Cycle Concept
| 2nd Cycle Patterns |
Quick Memos
My Notes Transcript
Video 2
Video Code # Student Gender Student Program of Study Subject matter/topic What happened in the Video? (2) 1st Cycle Descriptive 1st Cycle Concept 2nd Cycle Patterns Quick Memos
My Notes transcript
| Website Source |
Website Source
| Type of Page/Source |
Subject matter/topic
Web page/report content |
1st Cycle
CMC: CMC:
Cell alignment differs from the Video 2 tab. Suggest uniform alignment.
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1st cycle 2nd cycle Memos
| DELETE THE RED CONTENT AND PUT IN YOUR OWN |
| URL: [insert here] |
E.g., home page, |
transcript
| EXAMPLE |
https://www.waldenu.edu/about/social-change/global-day-of-service |
Global Days of Service |
Describes 2015 Global Days of Service |
Global Days of Service, celebrated October 12–18, inspired more than 20,500 faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as their friends and family, to participate in community service projects around the world. |
| Members of the Walden and Laureate communities in more than 15 countries contributed more than 125,000 volunteer hours in more than 240 service projects. Projects included: |
| Cleaning and organizing the Minneapolis American Indian Center in the U.S. |
| Building houses for hedgehogs and performing general cleaning and maintenance at a nature reserve in Gdansk, Poland. |
| Painting, assembling furniture, beautifying a courtyard, and organizing a food pantry at a middle school in Baltimore, Maryland, in the U.S. |
| Launching a program to engage with and provide physical and artistic outlets to refugee children and their families in Germany. |
| Serving orphans in Saudi Arabia. |
| Thank you to all of our volunteers for helping make a positive impact in communities around the globe. |
Sheet 2
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
· Chapter 1, “An Introduction to Codes and Coding” (pp. 1–42) (previously read in Week 5)
· Chapter 2, “Writing Analytic Memos About Narrative and Visual Data” (pp. 43–65) (previously read in Week 5)
Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2012). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
· Chapter 12, “Data Analysis in the Responsive Interviewing Model” (pp. 189–211) (previously read in Week 5)
Ravitch, S. M., & Carl, N. M. (2016). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
· Chapter 7, “An Integrative Approach to Data Analysis” (pp. 215–236) (previously read in Week 5)
· Chapter 8, “Methods and Processes of Data Analysis” (pp. 237–270) (previously read in Week 5)
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Dickinson, W. B., Leech, N. L., & Zoran, A. G. (2009). A qualitative framework for collecting and analyzing data in focus group research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(3), 1–21.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Document: Excel Video Coding Document Template (Excel spreadsheet) (previously used in Week 5)
Review this Excel template as you view this week’s media programs related to coding. Also, you will use this template for organizing your transcripts and preparing them for coding.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). How to plan and conduct a focus group [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 15 minutes.
In this media program, observe the focus group taking place. Think about how you might plan and conduct a focus group for your research topic.
Accessible player
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). Introduction to coding [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 10 minutes. (Previously viewed in Week 5)
In this media program, Dr. Susan Marcus, Core Research Faculty with the School of Psychology at Walden University, introduces you to the world of coding using Word or Excel documents. In this first video, you will learn how to organize your data.
Accessible player
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). From content to coding [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 12 minutes. (Previously viewed in Week 5)
In this media program, Dr. Susan Marcus, Core Research Faculty with the School of Psychology at Walden University, introduces coding and how to move from content to codes. This video focuses on what Saldaña (2016) calls “first cycle” coding. Three different approaches are presented. Analytic memos will also be discussed.
Accessible player
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016). Halfway point [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 2 minutes.
In this media program, Dr. Annie Pezalla, Associate Director of the Center for Research Quality at Walden University, reviews what you have accomplished so far. She also discusses what is coming next in the course.
Accessible player
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Halfway Point
Halfway Point
Program Transcript
ANNIE PEZALLA: Hello again, and congratulations on making it this far in the course.
You’re about halfway through qualitative reasoning and analysis. And now is a good
time to stop, to pause, to take a deep breath, and to take stock of where you’ve been in
the course, where you are right now, and where you’re going for the rest of the time in
this course, and perhaps even beyond.
ANNIE PEZALLA: So thus far in the course, you’ve been socialized more into this new
language of qualitative research, and learning more about the rules of this new playing
field. You’ve also been asked to make sense of phenomena in terms of the meanings
people bring to them. And that’s really the heart of qualitative research. And we’ve
asked you to begin to really develop your ideas, your own personal research interests,
in terms of a qualitative research inquiry.
ANNIE PEZALLA: So now, at this point in time in the course, we’re going to ask you to
turn to qualitative data collection, analysis, and interpretation. You’ll do that by using the
scholars of change videos, the transcripts, and the interview data that you’ve collected
from one of your colleagues. So using all that qualitative data, we’ll ask you now to start
practicing those skills of data analysis.
ANNIE PEZALLA: Thus far also in the course, the discussions have focused pretty
heavily on some of these new textbook concepts. From here on out though, the
discussions are going to be a bit different. We’ll ask you to use these discussions in a
much more flexible way. To check in with your faculty member and ask him or her how
you’re doing, and to collaborate with your colleagues, share your struggles, share your
insights, and to use that collaborative effort moving forward.
ANNIE PEZALLA: Also, be sure to take advantage of the resources outside this
classroom, particularly within the Center for Research Quality, and the Doctoral
Capstone Resources Webpage. We thank you, and we wish you luck, on the rest of
your time in this course, and onward.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
1
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
Program Transcript
SHERRY: The goal of a focus group is to collect in-depth information about the
perceptions and behaviors of a small non-representative sample of a population.
Focus groups take careful planning. In this program, we’ll show you how to plan
and conduct a focus group.
So, what is a focus group? A focus group is a research method used for
collecting qualitative data to gain a deeper understanding of a particular issue or
topic.
We convene a selected group of six to eight people with a specific demographic
background, and then lead them in a semi-structured conversation about a
particular issue of interest.
The conversation lasts about one to two hours and Is recorded for analysis later.
But before you begin, you need to be clear about your objectives.
Start by identifying what you intend to cover with your focus group. Maybe you
want to understand the feelings of a certain demographic on a given topic-- their
needs, their behaviors, or their knowledge. Maybe you want to find out what
people think about an idea you are considering, like a new initiative for your
community.
It all depends on the research question you want to answer. In the focus group
that I’m conducting, my research question is, why is the rate of breast cancer
screening so low among African-American women?
So whose experiences or attitudes do you want to explore? It’s important to be
clear on the population you need to sample. In my focus group, I want to explore
the views of African-American women aged 30 to 50.
It’s also important that I set up enough groups to provide complete information to
reach what we call saturation. It’s helpful to offer an incentive to people to sign
up. You don’t have to pay them, and you certainly don’t want them to come just
because of the money, because that might bias what they say.
But people are giving up their time to join a group, so it’s respectful to offer
something in return, like a gift card to a grocery store. The next thing is to find
your group members.
One approach is to recruit people out in the community. For example, you might
recruit at a community event as you hand out a flier, advertising your focus
group. Another approach is to recruit by phone. But you will need a list of names
to call.
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 1
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
For my focus group, I obtained two lists. One from my pastor at church, and the
other from a local community center. And then I start calling.
Try to find people who are alike enough to have common ground, yet diverse
enough to stimulate discussion. You can achieve this by carefully considering the
background and experience of each potential group member before you make
your final decision.
Once you have your focus group, you need someone to lead it-- A moderator. An
effective moderator has a full plate of responsibilities.
When did you first learn about breast cancer screening?
You need to know something about the topic of the research, keep the
conversation on track, and know how to listen. It’s important to relate to members
of the group regardless of their age, their interest, or their backgrounds.
You also have to be able to calm down anyone who tries to dominate the
conversation, and encourage the shy ones to talk. It also really helps if you can
read body language. And, of course, you have to stay on schedule.
That’s a lot, which is why some researchers employ a trained moderator, but
many of us lead our own groups. Leading a group and collecting data at the
same time is hard work. Some moderators can do it, but it’s best to have a
partner that can help you, like my research assistant, Maria.
MARIA: The research assistant has a lot to do, and it’s all important. I greet
people as they first come in, and help them get comfortable. I keep an eye on
how they interact. I read their body language. Keep track of time for the
moderator. Ask questions as the discussion wanders.
What are some of the barriers for women like you regarding your ability to get
breast cancer screening?
And perhaps most important, I make sure that the focus group data is collected.
I’ll be making an audio recording, but I’ll also take notes.
SHERRY: It’s important to find the right place to conduct your focus group.
Everyone needs to feel comfortable and safe. Office workers do well in a
conference room but others won’t.
For example, moms with kids will want a space for child care. Teens might prefer
a more relaxed setting, like a pizza shop. It can be great for an after school focus
group. Comfort is key.
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 2
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
MARIA: Provide refreshments. Make sure you have water on hand. Snacks, too.
Also, there has to be a restroom nearby-- for women and men. If you plan your
focus group carefully, the chances are that things will go smoothly.
For example, send out clear directions to everyone in advance. And if you can,
call all the group members the night before to remind them you want a full turn
out.
Most of the focus group is unscripted, but you do need to script a few things,
such as the questions you want to ask. Sherry has been working on the
questions for our focus group for a while now.
Since this is qualitative research, our questions are designed to give us rich, thick
data. We’ve tested them on a couple of non participants, so we know they’re
easy to understand and culturally sensitive.
SHERRY: In addition to the questions I want to ask, I also script the points I want
to cover before we start. The script comes in handy and helps keep me focused.
Hi, everyone.
PARTICIPANTS: Good morning.
SHERRY: I want to welcome you all today. Thank you so much for giving up a
couple of hours of your time to participate in this research. I’m excited about this
study and look forward to our discussion today. Just a few housekeeping items
before we get started.
We want this to be a casual discussion, but we do need it to be respectful. We all
hold valid opinions, and that’s the point of our focus group today. We want to
learn from all of you. I may stop the discussion if we start veering off track.
This is the consent form that you read and signed before coming into the room. It
says that our discussion here today is completely confidential. Your name, nor
anything about your identity, will appear anywhere in the study findings.
As health professionals, this is something we take very seriously. Upholding
confidentiality is an important part of our professional conduct, and I intend to
behave ethically and with integrity.
About halfway through our discussion we’ll stop for a short break. Restrooms are
located across the hall to the left. Finally, I ask that you turn off and silence your
cellphones.
MARIA: The script also contains a closing statement with details of what happens
next in the research process, such as how people get their incentives-- like the
grocery gift card-- and, of course, a big thanks to everyone for participating.
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 3
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
SHERRY: So everything is all set up for your focus group to run successfully,
and you’re ready to start. The space is inviting. There are snacks and drinks. Hi,
everyone.
PARTICIPANTS: Hello.
SHERRY: You’ve welcomed everyone, you’ve got your script, and you’re ready to
ask the first question. You go to turn on the audio recorder and it won’t work.
This is exactly what happened to me in my first focus group, and I didn’t have an
assistant to help me. So it’s good to have an assistant, and to double check your
recording equipment ahead of time.
We’re here to talk about mammograms, and what women of color think about
them. Because as you may know, about 70% of all white women get their
mammograms as recommended, but only about 40% of women like us. So
what’s going on here?
PARTICIPANT: Well, I can tell you, for one thing the clinic is all the way across
town, and that’s a long way for me. I have to go get child care because they don’t
have any there.
SHERRY: Every moderator has their own style, but most researchers agree on
the basic principles, like everyone’s opinion is important. However, sometimes
you have to restrain people who get over enthusiastic.
OK. Transportation is an issue. That’s clear. What about the rest of you? Do you
have easy access to public transportation to reach the imaging center?
ANN: Yeah, we have some buses, but they’re real old,
TINA: Oh man, they’re smelly. I hate when you get inside the bus and it is ripe.
One time I had to take a 20 minute bus ride downtown, but it felt like the longest
ride of my life.
ANN: Well, yeah, there’s that, but I was going to say that the older buses break
down a lot, so--
TINA: Like scream at your city councilmen, right? Like, hey, fix this thing already.
What are my taxes for?
SHERRY: What we’re you going to say, Ann?
ANN: The buses-- you know my friend Tricia? She almost--
SHERRY: Can we please let Ann finish her thoughts, and then we can listen to
what you have to say, Tina.
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 4
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
ANN: It’s just that it seems that there ought to be some way to help people get to
the center. You know, a shuttle bus or something like that.
SHERRY: There are also people who hold back. Maybe they’re shy, or uncertain
about how and when to speak. A good moderator involves them and pulls them
into the discussion
ANN: She was really rude to me, so after that experience I refused to go back.
SHERRY: Does anyone else have another story they’d like to share? Something
similar to Ann’s experience? How about you Maggie? Earlier you mentioned that
you wouldn’t use this imaging facility even though it’s not far from where you live.
Can you tell us some of the reasons why your family members don’t like the
facility?
MAGGIE: The facility’s OK, I guess. We just don’t talk about it much, that’s all.
SHERRY: You mean your family doesn’t talk about the facility, or something
else?
MAGGIE: We don’t talk about the screenings or breast cancer.
SHERRY: Was there something about the facility you didn’t like?
MAGGIE: Well, I used to take my nana there every year to get her screens, and
they weren’t real nice to her there. And then she got the cancer, and she passed
away really fast.
SHERRY: If she were still here, what do you think your nana would say about
breast cancer screenings, Maggie?
MAGGIE: I think she would say to stop moping around, and to get to the clinic to
get your screenings. She waited too long to get her screens and look what
happened.
SHERRY: If you were to get screened, would you consider using the imaging
facility we’ve been talking about today?
MAGGIE: I think I’d give it a try at least once.
SHERRY: Ideally, everyone feels comfortable enough in a focus group that they
openly share their points of view. When that happens, time flies, so watch the
clock. And when it’s time to end, use your script.
I want to thank everyone, and explain what happens to the information you’ve
given us today. We’re going to create a transcript. That’s a document containing
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 5
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
everything that you’ve said, and we’d like to invite each of you to read it, and
check it for accuracy.
This is called member checking. We’re happy to change anything you said if
you’d like us to do that. But, of course, we won’t change what anyone else has
said.
In theory, qualitative researchers continue to collect data until no new information
arises. At this point, the data is set to be saturated.
In practice, most major themes have emerged after three focus groups. So you
may want to end your first group asking for help, gathering people for the next
group.
MARIA: Here’s a flier about our next group for anyone you know who might want
to be a part.
SHERRY: This is a technique called snowballing. You get members from one
group to connect you with new people.
MARIA: Our next step will be to analyze the data and figure out the main things
that were expressed in the group. A second or third group may add to those
themes or even contradict them. That’s OK.
The idea is not to come up with any generalizable truths. We just want to
understand the different ways that people think about this topic.
SHERRY: Well, that’s it. Our time is up. So thank you all, and have a wonderful
rest of your day.
PARTICIPANTS: Thank you.
SHERRY: If you have any questions, just give me a call. The number is on the
paperwork.
A focus group takes practice, so you may not master it on your first try. Working
with an experienced researcher to conduct your first focus group is a great way
to learn this method of collecting information.
Leading a group takes oral communication and social skills. It takes on-the-spot
reactions, and the ability to read people. Focus groups are a time-tested way to
explore the stories behind the faces, and the meanings behind the numbers.
You can do them after a quantitative study to get deeper understanding of your
results. You can also do them before a quantitative study to discover variables or
factors you want to measure.
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 6
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
When done right, a focus group is a powerful way of collecting qualitative data.
How to Plan and Conduct a Focus Group
Additional Content Attribution
MUSIC:
Creative Support Services
Los Angeles, CA
Dimension Sound Effects Library
Newnan, GA
Narrator Tracks Music Library
Stevens Point, WI
Signature Music, Inc
Chesterton, IN
Studio Cutz Music Library
Carrollton, TX
©2016 Laureate Education, Inc. 7
Introduction to Coding
Introduction to Coding
Program Transcript
SUSAN MARCUS: Hello. My name is Dr. Susan Marcus, and this is an introduction to
coding qualitative data. Before we get started, I’m going to give you a definition and
some visuals of what we mean by coding qualitative data. A code in qualitative inquiry is
most often a word or a short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, a summary,
a salient or essence-capturing attribute, for some portion of language, or visual data.
So what does that mean? With these certain words, short words or phrases, we’re trying
to capture a meaning that’s been attributed to, or contributed to, by another source. So
the process of coding means we identify distinctive features of a piece of text, and see if
there are similar features to other pieces of text from other sources.
What this also means is you can code just about anything. You can code transcripts
from videos. You can code transcripts from written, or phone, or live, interviews. You
can also code observations of a field experience. Or code observations of a photo.
So once you get anything that you have observed, and want to include, in your
qualitative data analysis into a language-based form, typically in the form of a transcript
in a word processing document, you can then start the process of coding. What we’re
doing is we’re looking for patterns, similarities in features, similarities in order of
presentation, similarities of context, similarities in meaning.
So what these marbles represent are the different thoughts, and feelings, and
experiences, each person has about being in nature. And my quest as a qualitative
researcher to see if I can understand each individual’s experience, and then look for
shared meaning across those experiences. So here’s person A. And each type of
experience they share is noted by a different marble.
And as a qualitative researcher beginning to code, I say, hmm, maybe I can first
organize them according to a distinctive feature. Let’s try color. And as I’m organizing
the marbles, I see, well, some of the colors are really distinct, and some of them are not
quite as distinct as I thought. But I’m going to group them together anyway. So in a
sense, I’ve created a code for this person according to color.
Now I’m going to do it with the next person’s-- marble’s-- experiences. And I’m going to
organize them and sort them so that they line up with, to the best that I can surmise, the
preceding person. And I’ll do the same for the other two individuals. And as I’m doing
this, I’m also reflecting in my mind-- but if I was doing this as a qualitative study, I would
be taking notes, writing memos-- about the choices I was making about where to group,
or where to put, which marble with which group.
So, obviously, color is a really easy way to sort. We could sort on size. We could sort on
clarity. We could sort on whether some of the marbles were colored, or solid, or cat’s
eyes. And voila. So I’ve sorted, I’ve coded each individual’s experiences by color. And
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
1
Introduction to Coding
now, as a qualitative researcher, I want to group these experiences-- and again, we’ll do
it by color just for the purposes of illustration-- into larger patterns to see if there are
similarities across these different individuals.
And one of the things, for example, I would note, is that while most of the group share
this experience, indicated by the red marbles in color, this person has a similar kind of
experience, but it’s not quite the same. So as a qualitative researcher, I would make a
note-- I’m grouping these codes together into a category that I could call red. Noting that
some of the codes are approximations, but not identical, to the final category. And then I
can do that with the other marbles as well.
So again, you can see that I have made groups of like objects some of them-- Oh,
here’s another. Look at this. I had one set of objects over here, but they actually can go
over here. And I also have a couple of discrepancies that don’t really fit in any particular
category. And so as a qualitative researcher, I also have to make a decision. Do I want
to force, or try and make, every bit of information fit into a category, or do I want to use
these as what we call discrepant cases, to explore what these individual items or codes
mean?
So I hope that helps illustrate what we mean by the process of coding. Taking individual
bits of information, grouping them. I could also try grouping them with another approach.
For example, some of these marbles have two different colors. So I could also see what
pattern emerges if I take marbles with two different colors and put them all in one group.
And marbles with single colors and another group. Looks different.
So that’s the idea of approaching coding from different perspectives. That is, if you code
just one way, you get one picture. But if you code taking another approach, you may get
an entirely different picture.
The other point I’d like to share with you is the choice of doing manual coding. What we
mean by manual coding is using basic word processing and spreadsheet tools to move
bits of data around in order to create codes, categories, and themes.
The other alternative, is computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. There are
many, many choices available. And of course, the advantage of using a computer
application is that you have a bit more efficiency. They have lots of great visual displays,
and other ways to manipulate data. The challenge is, most of these software programs
have a very steep learning curve. So you’re learning both how to code qualitative data
and learning a software program.
The other issue is that because there are so many different kinds of programs to choose
from, you, as you become a more experienced qualitative researcher, and if you choose
to go on and do a qualitative dissertation, you may, after looking at different programs,
develop your own preference. Or your chair may have a preference for which one to
use. You’ll have a chance to work with smaller data sets in this course, and so using
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
2
Introduction to Coding
Excel and Word are more than acceptable. And, towards the end of the course, you’ll
also have a chance to explore software alternatives.
The other thing you’ll need to do is create a notebook. It can be in electronic form, like a
Word document, or an actual notebook for handwriting notes. In qualitative research, we
call these memos. Which contain your reflections, your thoughts, your descriptions of
your process, of going from the data sources, the transcripts, to codes, to categories,
and writing up your results.
As a final note, I just want to encourage you to use this as an opportunity to explore,
and develop new skills, and consider whether or not this type of research is something
that you would like to pursue for your dissertation. The act of qualitative data analysis
can be laborious, intensive, and repetitive. But it’s also the opportunity for discovery, for
something new, that’s been generated by your participants, for the data that you’ve
collected, and perhaps even the opportunity to discover something about yourself.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
3
From Content to Coding
From Content to Coding
Program Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SUSAN MARCUS: Hi. My name is Dr. Susan Marcus. And today, we’re going to be
looking at the process of going from content to coding for qualitative data analysis.
So what you’re seeing now is a transcript of an interview done with a graduate student
about her experience with social change and the meaning of social change. And we’re
going to prepare this transcript for coding. So the first thing to do is to go to Layout and
line numbers and add Continuous line numbers. And see how they appear down the
left-hand column so that when we start the process of moving this content onto our
Excel spreadsheet, you’ll be able to, if need be, go from this spreadsheet back to the
transcript and locate where you are.
The next thing to do is to locate the questions that are going to be analyzed. Now, this
interview was about 32 minutes long and has a number of questions. For the purposes
of this demonstration, we’re going to focus on the first four questions. But it’s really hard
to find them in the text. So I’m going to highlight those questions and number them.
So for example, if we look down here, we can see here’s the very first question. Could
you tell me what program did you graduate from at Walden? And I’m going to highlight
that. And here is the next question-- and what year? And that’s really part of the first
question, finding out when they were in graduate school.
So let’s scroll down to find the next question. And you’ll notice that as I’m scrolling down,
I can see in the content that she and the interviewer are having a conversation that’s
sort of a side conversation relevant to understanding the interviewees experience. But
it’s not about the first question or the next question that we’re looking for.
So here we are. So here’s our second question. And I’m going to highlight that. And
then I would do the same for the rest of the questions that I’m going to be transferring.
And now we have the same document with all four questions highlighted. You can see
here, for example, why it’s important to highlight so that when the question is embedded
in something that the interviewer is saying, it’s easy to see. You can also see here
below at 4a where the interviewer asked, “can you give me some examples,” that’s an
example of the interviewer asking a probing question which is related to the question
above.
So here, the interviewee answers the question. And then the interviewer follows up and
says, well can you tell me more about it? Can you give me more examples? We want to
make sure that when we’re coding, we have those two questions clearly identified.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
1
From Content to Coding
So now we’re going to go to our next document-- an Excel spreadsheet. So you’re using
the most current version of Excel. So even if you’re using a PC, that it should look fairly
similar to what you see on your video. And what we want to do is prepare this so we’ll
be able to easily move both content and questions into the spreadsheet.
So I’m going to set up a template. And it looks like this. In the first box up here, I’m
going to put Q because the first line is going to hold the question. In the second row
right underneath, I’m going to identify this as where we’ll put the line numbers, then the
interviewees actual response, and then columns for where we’re going to put our codes.
You do have to spell correctly. So in your spreadsheet, you’ll be doing the same thing.
You’ll also notice that I’m going to put a column in here called memo. Memos are a very
important part of the qualitative data analysis process. Here, because you’re going to be
doing multiple things at once, this is a great place to put very short notes which you can
expand and place in your analytic memo notebook.
So now let’s just adjust this so it becomes more user friendly for the data analysis
process. We’re going to go under Page Layout and adjust the orientation so we’re in
Landscape. In fact, I’ll make this a little bit bigger so it’s easier to see.
Now, the response is each of the participants actual content. So we’re going to make
that a little bit bigger. And then some room for your coding here. And then your memo
notes here. And then I’ll just create a line so that I’ll be able to distinguish each question
and each question’s response.
So the only other thing to do here before we start is to label the tabs of the sheet for
each participant. So in this worksheet you’ll be having each participant’s answers in
each of the tabs. And I’m going to save it just onto the desktop for now. And we’ll save it
as First Cycle. OK.
So the next step here is using the two documents at once-- moving from the Word
document back and forth between the Word document and the Excel document. Let’s
go back to our Word document and go back up to the top. Now we’re going to be
moving the questions and the content from the interview transcript to the Excel coding
sheet.
And the process of doing this is a bit laborious. But it also prepares you for looking at
the transcript and the interview in finer, more component parts. So instead of looking at
the document holistically and the feeling that it creates, you’re looking at each of the
little bits of text to see what individual meanings might come through.
So this is the process. We Copy and Paste the questions above the template. And if I
merge these cells for the question, then I can highlight each question so that as I add
the content, the questions will still be visible.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
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From Content to Coding
And here is the follow up question. But it still belongs with question 1. So we’ll put it in
the same line.
Now let’s move the content underneath the question. So I go back to the interview
document and I Copy and Paste and put the content there. Now you can see that this
would be a little bit hard to read. It runs past the column. So I use the Wrap Text
function. And now the text is all in one place.
I also want to remember to put the line numbers for where the text was located. So it
starts here. And you’ll see that’s line number 9. So I’ll put that here. And I’ll do this for all
of the content for each of the questions that we’ll be examining.
Here it’s interesting that the interviewee has mentioned a date that she graduated and
then corrected herself a little bit later on. So I’m going to put both pieces of data in there
and adjust it and put the line number in. And then I note that as I’m looking for the next
question or the next piece of text that the interviewee tells an interesting story about her
experience with Bill Clinton at the graduation ceremony. Now it’s not pertinent to the
interview. But as the researcher I think to myself, well that’s kind of interesting.
So as a memo, I’m going to put a note-- “interesting story about Bill Clinton at
graduation.” So if it becomes relevant to the data analysis or my reflection later on, I’ll
know what part of the text it came from and what I was thinking about at the time.
So it looks like that’s about it for the first question. That was pretty straightforward. Now
we’re going to get into some of the meatier parts of the interview. So I scroll down and
find the next question about social change.
And again, here, we see that the question was asked, the interviewee was a bit
confused, and the interviewer had to clarify. And we can see that right here is where the
actual answer starts. So I go to my Excel spreadsheet and Copy and Paste so now I’ve
got the next question ready to go.
I place the question just like we did before. I merge the cells, highlight it, and then start
to put the text in. So she answers the question, “yes, it was.” And I put that here. But
then she explains in more detail.
Then here we have the interviewer having a conversation about the degree. So we have
to scroll through and see if the interviewee is saying something else that’s relevant to
the question. And she is. She tells a little story on the side which is relevant to the
question. Not directly addressing it, but we want to put that in as well.
OK. So this should give you a good idea of the process that it’s going to take to get from
moving your content into the Excel spreadsheet. And you can see what I end up with is
units of conversation for each question.
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
3
From Content to Coding
And now here’s an example of what a finished coding spreadsheet looks like. We’ve
transferred all of the questions that we’re going to be analyzing and all of the content for
this particular interviewee. We would do the same for each person that we interview.
And again, as I said earlier, it’s a little bit laborious. But you can see now we’ve got a
good working document. We’ve moved from the individual transcript to moving the data
and the questions to our coding sheet. And now we’re ready to begin the coding.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
© 2016 Laureate Education, Inc.
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WAL_RSCH8310_05_A_EN-CC.mp4
