USING NVIVO FOR DATA ANALYSIS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education – January 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2USING NVIVO FOR DATA ANALYSIS IN QUALITATIVERESEARCHAlYahmady Hamed HilalSaleh Said AlabriMinistry of Education, Sultanate of OmanABSTRACT Qualitative data is characterized by its subjectivity,richness, and comprehensive text-based information. Analyzingqualitative data is often a muddled, vague and time-consumingprocess. Qualitative data analysis is, the pursuing of therelationship between categories and themes of data seeking toincrease the understanding of the phenomenon. Traditionally,researchers utilized colored pens to sort and then cut andcategorized these data. The innovations in software technologydesigned for qualitative data analysis significantly diminishcomplexity and simplify the difficult task, and consequently make theprocedure relatively bearable. NVivo, the qualitative data analysissoftware developed to manage the ‘coding’ procedures is consideredthe best in this regards. This article is devoted to demonstrate themethods in which NVivo can be employed in qualitative dataanalysis.Keywords: Coding, data analysis, Nvivo, qualitative research,survey.Qualitative Research in EducationQualitative research has become widely accepted across awide range of education science, including administrative,curriculum, and psychology research. This wide acceptanceof qualitative research in education is attributed to largeextent to the advantage of this type of research. Unlike thequantitative approach, qualitative inquiry is a method ofresearch that describes phenomena based on the point of viewof the informants, discovers multiple realities and developsholistic understanding of the phenomena within a particularcontext [1]. It has been acknowledged that properlyemploying the qualitative data gleaned from face to faceinterviews, field observation and document analysis can leadthe researcher to gain a deeper understanding of the problemthan merely analyzing data on a large scale [2].By this approach, the researcher can figure out theknowledge, skills and attitudes pertaining to the studiedphenomenon. That is because the qualitative research"provides information about the “human” side of an issue,―that is, the often contradictory behaviours, beliefs,opinions, emotions and relationships of individuals" [3]. Onemore advantage of the qualitative research is that thisapproach has its magnitude in the developing countries takinginto account their situation. [4] contend that:In predominantly oral cultures the advantages ofpersonal fieldwork, in-depth interviews and observation aremost significant. [Yet,] there remains a tendency in manydeveloping countries for research and policy planning to bebased on a system perspective that still neglects the realitiesof schooling in an everyday context. [4]There are several justifications for adapting thequalitative approach within the educational field, yet manyresearchers still avoid using this type of research due to itsanalyzing difficulty. There is, however, a growing body ofliterature devoted to simplify analyzing qualitative research ineducation. The main goal of this article is to pave the way inusing the software in analyzing qualitative data.Data AnalysisQualitative data analysis is a “process of bringing order,structure and meaning to the mass of collected data” [5]. Suchprocess is not an easy task. It is disordered, hard, and timeconsuming, even though it is an innovative and captivatingmethod. Qualitative data analysis is, in fact, pursuing therelationship between categories and themes of data seeking toincrease the understanding of the phenomenon. Thus, ratherthan being strict and procedures-based, the researcher isrequired to be alert, flexible and positively interact with datacollected [6].Since the qualitative data are text-based, the corner stoneof analyzing these data is the coding process. Codesaccording to [7] are “tags or labels for assigning units ofmeaning to the descriptive or inferential informationcompiled during a study”. Codes often adhere to chunks ofwords, phrases, sentences or the entire paragraph. Codinginvolves pursuing related words or phrases mentioned by theinterviewees or in the documents. These words or phrases arethen combined together in order to realize the connectionbetween them.Conventionally, coding was done by hand, utilizingcolored pens to sort and then cut and categorize these data. Insome cases researcher would photocopy each transcript ondifferent colored paper (i.e. interviewee 1 on red, interviewee2 on blue etc.) and then pertinent phrases are cut from thescript using a pair of scissors and arrange them into heaps.Alternatively, the researcher could use the highlightingfunction in the word processor to highlight the text he or sheis interested in, once more a different color for eachinterviewee and then bring them together in an electronic file[5], [7]. This task in most of the cases actually is muddled,vague and time-consuming process.Using NVivo in data analyzingGiven the innovations in software technology, electronictechniques of data coding are gradually being more employedto obtain rigor in dealing with such data. Moreover, using a

International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education – January 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2computer basically “ensures that the user is working moremethodically, more thoroughly, more attentively” [8]. Thus,qualitative researchers are encouraged to pursue employingthis tool as much as possible in their works.NVivo, a Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) computersoftware package produced by QSR International, has manyadvantages and may significantly improve the quality ofresearch. Analysis of qualitative data has become easier andyields more professional results. The software indeed reducesa great number of manual tasks and gives the researcher moretime to discover tendencies, recognize themes and deriveconclusions [9]. In addition, NVivo is considered as an idealtechnique for researchers working in a team since it facilitatescombining the work of individuals to come up with oneproject together.Bazeley [8] mentions five important tasks in whichNVivo ease analysis of qualitative data. These tasks include:- Manage data: by organizing a number of muddled datadocuments. That includes interview transcripts, surveys,notes of observations and published documents.- Manage ideas: in order to understand the conceptual andtheoretical issues generated in the course of the study.Starting a projectWorking with Qualitative Data FilesWorking with Nodes- Query data: by posing several questions of the data andutilizing the software in answering these queries. “Results ofqueries are saved to allow further interrogation and soquerying or searching becomes part of an ongoing enquiryprocess” [8].- Modeling visually: by creating graphs to demonstrate therelationships between the conceptual and theoretical data.-Reporting: by utilizing the data collected and the resultfound to formulate transcript reports about the studyconducted.Before a qualitative researcher starts using the NVivosoftware, he or she has to obtain a thorough knowledge andskills of applying this software. The researcher may pursuesome workshops that emphasize the application andtechniques of NVivo software. In addition, the researcher cango through tutorials attached with the NVivo software. Thosetutorials offer step-by-step animated displays and theresearcher can commence employing QSR software straightaway. The procedures figured out by [8] in employing Nvivosoftware program are useful in analyzing the qualitative data.These procedures are illustrated in Figure 1.*Creating project*Creating confidential password*Saving the NVivo project*Preparing documents for Import*Importing Documents* Document Browser*Types of Nodes*Creating NodesCoding Qualitative DataGoing further*Using the Coder*Starting analysis*Going further with concepts*Going further with categories*Going further with themes*Going further with narrative and discourse*Employing numerical data*Going further into drawing figures and sketches.Figure 1Procedure Followed in Applying NVivo Software.Adopted from [8]

International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education – January 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2- Starting a project: The first step in this stage is to createa project comprised of all the documents, coding data andassociated information that can assist during the analysisprocess. Seeking to restrict access to the data recorded theresearcher may create a confidential password in the projectas appears in Figure (2).Figure 2 NVivo Screenshot of a Study’s Project- Working with Qualitative Data Files:Typically, the researcher records interviewsdigitally to capture all the details revealed by theinterviewee. He/she is recommended to store the- based.electronic sound files under a name of eachinterviewee. These interviews have to betranscribed and stored in a word processingapplication in order to make them textFigure 3NVivo Screenshot of the Tree Nodes

International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education – January 2013, Volume 2, Issue 2The next step is to import the files which the researcherintends to analyze. This procedure is basically done viasteering to the location where the file has been stored, thenpicking the appropriate file extension. NVivo automaticallyimports the selected documents into the application. Alsousing the Document Browser allows the researcher torecognize all of the text in the imported document.- Working with Nodes: The function of nodes is tostore a place in NVivo for references to code text. Thatmeans the two types of nodes, tree and free, contain theall known information about a particular concept orcategory “[8]. Two common nodes available are: Treenodes and free nodes. Tree nodes are illustrated in Figure(3).Figure 4NVivo sample of the coding process- Coding Qualitative Data: To code a chunk of data ina project document under a particular node, the researchercan highlight the text via the mouse and pull the highlightedtext to the identified node. When the cursor is located overthe node, the highlighted text changes color and the relevantnode linked with the text shows up on the Coding Stripe tothe right of the browser as appears in Figure (4). Thatallows assigning multiple codes to the same chunk of thetext as well by going through the same process.Going further: In this stage, the researcher can goforward to analyze the data. [8] suggests that further thanjust code and retrieve in the context of those basicprinciples of continues analysis, creativity tempered byrigor and care, through documentation and flexibility alongwith disciplinary awareness. At this stage, the researchershould focus on the techniques for utilizing the availabletools productively and analytically. These techniquesfacilitate the development of the concepts, categories andthemes, as well as going further with the narrative anddiscourse pertaining to the study. At this stage also, theresearcher can employ several numerical data obtainedduring the study conducted. These numerical data cansometimes be demonstrated as figures and sketches tofacilitate the reading of the findings as appear in Figure (5).