NVivo Basics Workbook

NVivo Basics WorkbookProduced by © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT Table of Contents Objectives ............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2 What is NVivo software? ................................................................................................... 2 Why would you use NVivo? ............................................................................................... 2 Accessing and installing NVivo .......................................................................................... 3 Navigating around the software ......................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Commencing a Project ........................................................................................ 4 Creating projects ............................................................................................................... 4 Project structure and layout ............................................................................................... 4 Project Layout ................................................................................................................ 5 Basic (but vital to know) functions...................................................................................... 6 Undo past actions .......................................................................................................... 6 Saving your project ........................................................................................................ 6 Backing Up your project ................................................................................................. 7 Closing a project and Closing the software .................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 Working with research materials ........................................................................... 8 Creating subfolders in Sources ...................................................................................... 8 Collecting text based source files ...................................................................................... 9 Create a text based source document............................................................................ 9 Import a word document .............................................................................................. 10 Import a PDF ............................................................................................................... 11 Memos ............................................................................................................................ 12 Create a memo ............................................................................................................ 12 Managing text based files ................................................................................................ 13 Editing sources ............................................................................................................ 13 Filing and storing items ................................................................................................ 14 Annotations ..................................................................................................................... 14 To annotate a selection of text: .................................................................................... 14 To annotate a selection of image: ................................................................................ 15 Show or hide annotation content .................................................................................. 15 Memo Links ..................................................................................................................... 16 To create a memo link:................................................................................................. 16 Chapter 3: Coding with nodes ............................................................................................. 17 © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT Last updated Feb 2013 What is the difference between a node and a code? ....................................................... 17 Nodes .............................................................................................................................. 17 Create a Node ............................................................................................................. 17 Create a Child Node .................................................................................................... 18 Creating subfolders in Nodes ....................................................................................... 18 Coding ............................................................................................................................. 19 Code source ................................................................................................................ 19 Code Selection: This is the most used process of coding............................................. 20 Code In Vivo ................................................................................................................ 20 Quick coding tool bar ................................................................................................... 21 Drag and drop coding .................................................................................................. 22 Coding Stripes ............................................................................................................. 22 Node hierarchies that work and those that don’t. ............................................................. 23 Moving and merging Nodes ............................................................................................. 24 Move nodes to a new parent or folder .......................................................................... 24 Merge one or more nodes into an existing node........................................................... 24 Chapter 4: Basic search functions ....................................................................................... 25 How do I set up a query? ................................................................................................. 25 Text search ..................................................................................................................... 26 Word frequency ............................................................................................................... 27 Stop Words ..................................................................................................................... 28 Matrix coding query ......................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 5: Moving on with NVivo ........................................................................................ 29 Where to get help? .......................................................................................................... 29 What to expect in NVivo Intermediate training ................................................................. 29 What to expect in NVivo Advanced training ..................................................................... 29 Some useful resources: ................................................................................................... 30 Revision tasks ................................................................................................................. 30 © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT Last updated Feb 2013 backup and copy an NVivo project How to create text based sources within NVivo How to import text based sources into NVivo How to code text based sources in NVivo How to conduct a basic text search in NVivo How to conduct a word frequency query in NVivo How to conduct a basic matrix coding query in NVivo How to use NVivo for a literature review and other aspects of the research process How to find self-help and further resources for NVivo beyond the training course © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 1 .Objectives Upon completion of this NVivo basics workshop students will know • • • • • • • • • • Basic functions and limitations of NVivo software How to create. Introduction What is NVivo software? NVivo is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) software package that allows users to import. the company who own and develop NVivo products became Microsoft gold partners to access aspects of their software to improve familiarity and usability. EverNote and QSR’s own package NCapture. literature reviews. audio recordings. Both versions of the software will be fully integrated and cross compatible. OneNote. audio files. I like to think of NVivo as a tool box – akin to that of a carpenter – it is wise to know when and why you would use all of the tools – but no one project is likely to demand you use them all! So even if you are planning to undertake a predominantly quantitative research study. For qualitative research the possibilities are enormous! © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 2 . NVivo can accommodate information from processing applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel. shape and make sense of unstructured information. web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Google Chrome as well as social media such as Facebook. databases. The more recent version of NVivo enables researchers to incorporate seamlessly open-ended survey responses. NVivo uses the Microsoft SQL server as a platform which makes it look like Microsoft Outlook –both NVivo and the SQL server get installed on installation. NVivo now has the capacity to interchange data with multiple other software applications for seamless collection of multiple sources of relevant data and information. bibliographical data. Therefore. it provides a workspace and tools to enable you to easily work through your information. Whilst developed initially for qualitative social research the power and possibilities of NVivo has expanded enormously in recent years. It does not do the intellectual thinking for you. PDFs. so connect to their mailing list and keep informed of new developments and don’t be surprised when NVivo 11 is released! Why would you use NVivo? Traditionally NVivo is the main resource for researchers using qualitative research methods and approaches included in-depth interviews. phenomenology and grounded theory whereby the most basic form of analysis involves the interrogation of unstructured data. bibliographic programs including EndNote. QSR aim to release a new version of the software every 2 years. All recent versions of NVivo have been developed on a Microsoft platform. collating and interpreting data for literature reviews and progressive analytical thinking and writing. web pages and social media data. content analysis. Just a note of warning. ethnography. So if you are a Microsoft user – many basic functions will be familiar to you. sort and analyse rich text and plain text documents. One very important point to make is that qualitative research software such as NVivo helps people to manage. Zotero and RefWorks. pictures and web pages to their qualitative projects. QSR International. NVivo looks like a Microsoft product – but it is not. spread sheets. however a native Mac version is due out late in 2013. digital photos. NVivo is a useful resource for collection. Twitter. documents. focus groups. data bases such as IBM SPSS Statistics. Navigating around the software The first time you go to use NVivo it will ask for your name and initials to create a user profile.edu.cfm.flinders. then we suggest you source an annual university site license. you will need to create a new project.Accessing and installing NVivo The latest version of NVivo is always available from the QSR website for a 30 day free trial. If you decide NVivo is a valuable tool for your research. Flinders University entered into a central site licence agreement with QSR – the owners of NVivo software. the cost of the software is now covered by the central university budget and no longer the end user. The most recent five projects will be shown in the left hand column of the Launch Pad.flinders.edu.licensing@flinders. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 3 . The licence agreement allows for university.com. It is a fully functioning version of the software and a great place to start. but less so if doing independent research such as for a higher degree. Otherwise – use the university download links and activation key provided and follow the prompts. NVivo is the computer program – but you can have multiple NVivo projects at any one time. This is particularly important and useful if doing team research. If you install the 30 day free trial – all you need to do is enter the new university activation key to continue using the software beyond the trial period. This can be changed through the File/Options dialogue.cfm? In 2012. The initial interface you will come to is known as the Launch Pad. Support for home computer installations is not provided. Consequently.au with a scanned attachment of a completed and signed NVIVO Staff & Postgraduates At Home User Agreement available from https://www. The activation key lasts for 12 months and you just need to update the key each year in March. If not. The initials you provide will then be evident in the lower right hand corner of the status bar. see www. as well as at home use of the software.au/its/computers-and-software/software-licensing/nvivo. The details of how to do this are available from https://www.edu.qsrinternational. If you have one you want to open just select it from the list and move on. This activation key can be obtained by emailing software.au/its/computers-and-software/software-licensing/nvivo. The local university computing support staff can assist with installation of the product on a university workplace computer. Home. deleted or moved. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 4 . Task 1: Open NVivo. External Data. These have been grouped into their related functions or activities within the software. Report. Descriptions can be done any time through accessing the properties dialogue box. Picture. These will be visible at all times. Project structure and layout All NVivo projects have a basic pre-set structure which cannot be modified. This is the unique code for NVivo projects. Explore. Enter a name for your new project. These tabs are called Media. If you have NVivo projects on your computer but do not remember where or they do not show in your Launch Pad – the easiest way to locate them is to search for file types with . You can however add whatever you need to it – create folders and storage systems within the database. ribbons. Create. Cluster Analysis.nvp file extension. The primary tabs are File. Model. any individual item within your project – has a description box. The ribbons can be minimised to create a larger work area on your screen by clicking on the upward pointing arrow ^ in the top right hand corner of the screen beside the Help icon. and commence a new project for a literature review All NVivo projects default to be saved on your local C drive in your Documents folder. Layout and View. Tree Map and Word Tree. You can select anywhere for your project to be located and stored by using the browse button. NVivo uses the ribbon structure to organise all of the function commands available. A description of your project – and for that matter. There are additional tabs that become activated when you open particular file types which relate to the function you may wish to use. Chart. These are useful spaces to write your own notes about the project and/or project item – but are not searchable later on. Analyze. To restore the full ribbon to be in full view select the downward pointing arrow in the same place. and are fully editable. HANDY HINT: NVivo project files are like any other computer file – they can be copied. right mouse clicking and keyboard function keys. Query. So to create a new Project • • Either select File/New or use the New Project button at the bottom of the Launch pad.Chapter 1: Commencing a Project Creating projects As with most software there are many ways to initiate an action – including the menu lists. Project Layout The NVivo work space is made of three main areas known as the Navigation View. the List View and the Detail View. List View Once the individual project item you want has been selected in the List View – it will open in detail view. Navigation View Once the project item type you want has been selected in the Navigation View – then the list view is populated with its content. Navigation view is where we move around the database and access all of the project items you create. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 5 . You can have multiple items open in detail view at any time and tab between them from the top of the detail view screen. It has an automatic save reminder which by default will activate following 15minute of actual active work. the right directional undo arrow will be blue in colour. It is recommended that you save regularly to avert losing any work. BUT beware Once you activate a save function you will lose the ability to undo the past actions. Once the project is saved the clipboard for the UNDO function is cleared and the arrow becomes grey in colour.Detail View Multiple items open at once Basic (but vital to know) functions Undo past actions NVivo has the capacity to UNDO up to the past five actions. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 6 . If there are actions that you can UNDO. A manual save can be done at ANY time: • Either select File then Save from the File ribbon or use the SAVE button at the top of the ribbons on the quick access bar. indicating there is nothing that can be undone. Saving your project NVivo DOES NOT save after every activity you do. Backing Up your project Backing up your NVivo projects is very simple and an invaluable process in case of computer malfunction or loss. If you want to close one project and move to another NVivo project use the File then Close options which will return you to the Launch Pad. To make a backup at ANY time: • • Select File then Manage then Copy Project. • Closing a project and Closing the software As with other software packages you have the option to close the open project/file or to close down the software package. external hard drive or network drive. Using the browse button locate the place you want to make a backup copy too – such as an E or F drive. Select a name – we recommend you include the date or version number with the project name so you can keep up with which is the most recent back up copy. Task 2: Save a backup copy of your project to the desk top or USB © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 7 . If you want to close the whole program including the current project use the File then Exit options or the Red Cross button in the top right of the screen. NVivo will automatically save the current project on closing. As with any files stored on a computer – if they are important it is always worthwhile having a back up on an external storage device such as USB. then highlight Internals in the top section of Navigation View. Whilst we recommend this. Within Sources there are subfolders for types of source files: Internals. Multimedia file types and datasets will be covered in the Intermediate workshop. jpeg).Chapter 2 Working with research materials NVivo provides a storage area for all the project items that form your research materials. NVivo is a powerful program that can manage many different file types. QuickTime formats (mov. MPEG-4 format (m4a). as a visual prompt. Memos. m2ts) Digital images: Windows bitmap (bmp). docx). In the basics workshop will we work with the Internals and Memos folders. wav) Video files: MPEG formats (mpg. xlsx). © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 8 . mpe. Rich text file (rtf). mp4). Windows Media formats ( avi. In the navigation pane this is called Sources. it is not mandatory and both sources and memos are fully functioning items with NVivo. Memos are the place we recommend you store your observations and insights about the material you are analysing. and plain text (txt) PDFs: Portable Document Format (pdf) Spreadsheets: Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (xls. wmv). Right mouse click over the highlighted Internals folder and select New Folder OR From the Create ribbon – select Folder Name the subfolder when the dialogue box opens and select OK. windows media formats (wma. Access or SQL server file saved as xls. 3G Mobile Phone format (3gp). Internals is the place we recommend you store your compatible files that are data. Tagged Image File Format (tif. You can create additional storage subfolders within these to sort and store your project items. your personal ideas. They also have a different icon which is a different colour. AVCHD High Def Video formats (mts. Joint Photographics Expert Group formats (jpg. Framework Matrices. qt). reminding you that they are different project item types. tiff) In this basics workshop we will work with text based information in the form of documents as this is the primary format of research data. However Internals can accommodate multiple file types and memos can only accommodate text based documents (not PDFs). NVivo has the capacity to create new or make a carbon copy of files and store them inside your project using the following file types: Documents: Microsoft word document (doc. Externals. or Comma or Tab-delimited text file (txt) Audio files: MPEG-1 format (mp3). Creating subfolders in Sources To create a subfolder in the internal Sources folder – • • • • First select Sources in the bottom of navigation view. mpeg. Graphic Interchange Format (gif). select New Internal then New Document OR • From the Create ribbon select Document • Name the document when the dialogue box opens and select OK. Task 4: Create a document called “Research Journal” in the Internals folder The new blank document will open in detail view. using all the basic editing functions available in the Home ribbon. NVivo offers all the functions to format documents including heading styles. There is even a spell check – but this needs to be activated once typing is done – and it will check the document. then highlight Internals in the top section of Navigation View so the Internals is shown in list view • Right mouse click in the white space of the internals list view. It does not check as you type like Microsoft Word does.Task 3: Create subfolders for “Journal Articles” and “Book Chapters” in the Internals folder Collecting text based source files Create a text based source document • First select Sources in the bottom of the navigation view. fonts and colours. From here you can type into the document. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 9 . • Rename the document when the dialogue box opens if you would like and select OK. click the X to the right of the file name in the tab.NVivo is able to distinguish text by heading styles but not able to search and distinguish by font or colour. Task 5: Import the document called “Literature Reviews” into the Internals folder © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 10 . This is an important issue if wanting to use functions such as auto coding in structured documents. To close an open file from detail view. then highlight Internals in the top section of Navigation View so the Internals is shown in list view • Right mouse click in the white space of the internals list view select Import then New Document OR • From the External Data ribbon – select Document • Locate the file you want to import only compatible document file types will be shown. Import a word document • First select Sources in the bottom of navigation view. These are directly importable into NVivo for research analysis. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 11 .Import a PDF The primary alternative text based file type is the PDF. Most journal articles are available as fully formatted PDFs. government releases and policy documents. Basically there are two primary types of PDFs frequently used in research. An example is a word document that is converted into a PDF such as research reports. then highlight Internals in the top section of Navigation View. and the way in which they are created will impact on their functionality on NVivo. These can be made in a multiple of ways. Such files often still have graphics embedded in them – however the graphics converts to a picture within the PDF – with the characters separate from this. • • • • Task 6: Import the PDF called “Writing Literature reviews” into the Journal Articles folder HANDY HINT: Open the PDF and have a look at it. PDFs cannot be created in NVivo – they can only be imported. Method 1: The first is where the PDF is created digitally and each character is unique and independently readable by the computer. • First select Sources in the bottom of navigation view. click on the + button if required and highlight the Journal articles folder so the Journal Articles is shown in list view Right mouse click in the white space of the internals list view select Import then New PDF OR From the External Data ribbon – select PDFs Locate the file you want to import only PDF file types will be shown Rename the document when the dialogue box opens if you want and select OK. This effects the way we handle it in NVivo. reports and web pages. NVivo now uses an abridged version of Adobe Acrobat and therefore there is no loss of formatting in PDFs which make it exceptionally good for journal articles. NVivo is able to decipher individual text characters during its search and query functions. journal articles. What features do you notice are different with the PDF to the Document item type? • • • • Documents are editable PDFs are not editable Documents have no pagination PDFs are fully formatted and fully paginated A PDF is a portable document format file. Memos can also be imported – but only text (txt). Therefore the main difference between a document and a memo is the primary folder/place in which they are stored and the different icon they are represented by. However. If you prefer to work with text (rather than images of text). Task 7: Import the PDF called “Writing Literature Memos As mentioned in the introduction to this chapter. code or query. as once done it cannot be changed (It can be copied and recreated – but you cannot change the item type). You need to make the decision as to whether you want the text as a document or a memo before you create/import it. To see the difference clearly. however you are coding an image selection and therefore you cannot use Text Search or Word Frequency queries to explore the text. using all the basic editing functions available in the Home ribbon. then highlight Memos in the top section of Navigation View so the Memos is shown in list view • Right mouse click in the white space of the memos list view and select New Memo OR • From the Create ribbon – select Memo • Name the memo when the dialogue box opens and select OK. Create a memo • First select Sources in the bottom of navigation view. Therefore if you import the PDF into NVivo. The new blank document will open in detail view.Method 2: The alternative way a PDF is created is by scanning documents/images/books through a flatbed scanner or photocopier and saving as a PDF file. open both PDFs and compare their differences. With this method each page regardless of whether test or image or both is saved as a single image and the computer is unable to read text individual characters. they are still fully functional text documents which can be created within NVivo and are fully editable and searchable. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 12 . then you should consider using optical character recognition (OCR) to convert the scanned images to text (before you import the PDF files into NVivo). Working with images is covered in the Intermediate workshop. you will find that there is no text in the page to select. You can select and code regions of the page. do tasks 6 and 7. docx) are compatible file types to be memos. Microsoft Word documents (doc. just as you can with a document. From here you can type into the document. Memos are reviews Scanned” into the the place we recommend you store your observations and Journal Articles folder insights about the material you are analysing your personal ideas. Once you save it for the first time it operates as an existing document or memo. You can also insert images into your documents or memos. If you open an existing document or memo. The detail view will looks like this and it can be made editable through the edit button in the home ribbon or from the hyperlink at the top of the file. Managing text based files Editing sources When you create a new document or memo. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 13 . You will be able to code both the text and images in your documents and memos. This is a safety mechanism for when you code your text. write yourself some notes about NVivo. Once you have completed editing the document or memo it is strongly encouraged that you turn editing off by deselecting the Edit button in the home ribbon or by closing and reopening the item. it opens as a read-only file and you must switch to edit mode before you can edit the content.Task 8: Create a memo called “Initial ideas” in the Memos folder. You can type content directly into the document or use copy and paste to add content. As mentioned earlier PDFs are NOT at all editable. it opens in edit mode. reminders or observations about specific content in a source or node. Annotations Like scribbled notes in the margin. and you decide to create Project Admin into this new folder. Task 9: Create a new folder for Project NVivo recognises project items by the type of item they are created as. provided the admin folder is located in the Internals. What you cannot do is move the project diary into memos as it has not been created as a memo. This will open in detail view. folder and want to move it. To do this – create the new folder and then cut/paste or drag and drop the project diary file into the project admin folder. you can. You are able to drag and drop items from one folder administration. Task 10: Create an annotation in a text file and in a PDF © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 14 . and to another – provided they are being moved within the same then move the folder type. a sentence or a whole paragraph • Right mouse click in the highlighted text. So if you have created an internal source file (for project diary file example our project diary) and it is being stored in the primary internal source folder. Annotated content is highlighted in blue and the text of the annotation is displayed in the Annotations tab at the bottom of the window: To annotate a selection of text: • First open the Source file or node you want to annotate. which is much more time efficient if you have a collection of articles and research documents/transcripts.Filing and storing items When importing source files – you are able to select multiple files at once. • Highlight the text you want to annotate – it may be a word. annotations let you record comments. select Links then Annotation then New Annotation OR • From the Analyze ribbon select New Annotation • Once the annotation box opens in the base of detail view type the notes you wish to make in the content column • Return your cursor to the text and you will note the selected and now annotated text will have a BLUE highlight. Show or hide annotation content On the View tab. under PDF Selection. in the Editing group. select or clear the Annotations check box. you first need to change your curser type • To switch between text and region selection—on the Home tab. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 15 . in the Links group. click Text or Region.To annotate a selection of image: If wanting to select the regions of an image – like a picture within a PDF. Memo Links When you want to comment on the issues that arise from a source or node. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 16 . and the memo will be in the Memo folder in the Sources. However. If you have linked to a pre-existing memo the existing memo will open in detail view in read only mode and you will need to make it editable to add information to the memo. You can however have memos that are not linked to any source or node—these can be useful for tracking the overall progress of your project. Right mouse click in the highlighted text. To create a memo link: Memo links can be done with the source or node in list view as it is not specific to selected text within a file. if you have the file open and are coding it you can just create the memo link with the document open in detail view. Each source or node can have only one memo linked to it and that memo cannot be linked to any other item. • • • First select the Source file or node you want to link a memo to. (From the Home ribbon – select edit button). • • Now that you have text based source file in your project it is time to move on to coding and analysis. you can create direct links to a memo—for example. while inspecting the content gathered at a node you can create and link to a memo that describes the patterns or ideas that are emerging. It does not matter. If it is a new memo it will open as a blank new memo ready for writing. select Links then Memo Link then New or Existing Memo (whichever is relevant) OR From the Analyze ribbon select Memo Link and then New or Task 11: Create a memo link for a new existing memo Once the link is established the memo to a text file memo will open in detail view. In list view the item with a memo link will have the Memo link icon displayed. Either highlight it in list view or place your curser into the text of the open document. concept or case together for further exploration. a word or short phrase to represent the selected data. then highlight Nodes in the top section of Navigation View so the Nodes is shown in list view • Right mouse click in the white space of the Nodes list view. A code is the label you apply to a set of material. and Node Matrices. Put simply Nodes = Codes. select New Node OR • From the Create ribbon – select Node • Name the node when the dialogue box opens and select OK. These are based on the ontology and epistemology of your research and beyond the scope of this workshop. The approach you take to coding your own data will depend on your research methodology and analytical frameworks. You can organize nodes within all of these in folders and in hierarchies—moving from general topics at the top (the parent node) to more specific topics (child nodes). © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 17 . The basics workshop will focus on using the Nodes folder only. Nodes are containers for your themes. However some helpful resources are included at the end of this workbook. there is no one approach to qualitative research coding. Coding is an interpretive process which enables us to then analyse the data. organizations or other areas of interest to enable you to answer your research questions. Nodes in NVivo are the places where we store our coding. There are three pre-set subgroups of nodes in the Navigation View: Nodes. Coding is the process of examining the data and sorting it to be interpreted. there are in fact many. people. places. Relationships. While this NVivo workshop outlines how to create nodes and undertake basic coding processes.Chapter 3: Coding with nodes What is the difference between a node and a code? Coding is a fundamental task in most qualitative projects—it involves gathering all the material about a particular theme. If there is no logical connection between your nodes (or perhaps these connections are not yet apparent) you can just add nodes at the top level of the hierarchy. Nodes Create a Node • First select Nodes in the bottom of navigation view. because the program likes to • First select Nodes in the bottom of navigation view default to the top level folder during then highlight the Nodes folder in the top section of the coding process. Creating subfolders in Nodes Just like sources. way to sort and store nodes. HANDY HINT: Beware of To create a subfolder in the Nodes – complex folder structures in nodes. Navigation View.Create a Child Node • First select Nodes in the bottom of navigation view. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 18 . • This new node will now be in a hierarchical structure below selected the parent node Task 12: Create a node called “Methodology” and then some child nodes with types of research methodologies you are likely to find in your literature review. • Name the subfolder when the dialogue box opens Node hierarchies are an effective and select OK. • Right mouse click over the highlighted Nodes folder However folders are good for and select New Folder OR sorting and coding can be freely • From the Create ribbon – select Folder moved around at any time. you can organize nodes in folders to suit the way you work. then highlight Nodes in the top section of Navigation View so the Nodes is shown in list view • Right mouse click over the desired parent Nodes and select New Node OR • From the Create ribbon – select Node • Name the node when the dialogue box opens and select OK. However the program will always default to the top level folder called Nodes unless you direct it elsewhere. So while folders are possible in nodes they are less useful for basic projects. Coding As previously discussed. You can choose from the Analyze ribbon. • • As with most computer processes there are also different ways in which you can perform the functions for coding. This is useful when wanting to put all data from one person or one organisation into one place for further analysis. Code source To code an entire source to a node: • • Select Sources in the bottom of navigation view. Code selection will place the highlighted/selected text or image into the node(s) selected. You may choose to code at a new node and create it in the coding process. Beware of using this for sentences and paragraphs as it will not be what you want for analysis as the node name will be too long and not meaningful. coding is the process of examining the data and sorting it to be interpreted. using right mouse clicks. This is the main method used for qualitative analysis. In NVivo. In most approaches to qualitative analysis this is a human intellectual process of interpretation and deciphering data. or using the Quick Coding toolbar. HANDY HINT: You do not need to • • Task 13: Code a source to a node based on the methodology it uses have the nodes created first in order to code. Code In-Vivo will place the entire highlighted/selected text into a node and apply the selected content as the Node name. there are three main coding choices: • Code source will place the entire data source file into the node(s) selected. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 19 . then highlight the required folder in the top section of Navigation View so the required source file is shown in list view Right mouse click in the required source file in list view. although with computerised data some automated functions are possible. select Code sources then Code Sources at Existing Node or Code Sources at New Node OR From the Analyze ribbon select Code Sources at then select New Node or Existing Node Select the required node or name the new node when the dialogue box opens and select OK. Highlight the text you want to code. o BEWARE not to choose the code source options! • Select the required node or name the new node when the dialogue box opens and select OK. select Code Selection then Code Sources at Existing Node or Code Sources at New Node OR From the Analyze ribbon select Code Selection at then select New Node or Existing Node. Code In Vivo To code a portion of a source file to a node using the words as the node name: • • • • • Task 14: Code selections of text to new and existing nodes First open the Source file you want to code. in the Editing group. Right mouse click in the highlighted text. Highlight the text you want to code. If wanting to select the regions of an image for coding – like a picture within a PDF. select Code In Vivo OR From the Analyze ribbon select Code In Vivo. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 20 . methods Right mouse click in the highlighted text. you first need to change your curser type • To switch between text and region selection—on the Home tab.Code Selection: This is the most used process of coding To code a portion of a source file to a node: • • • • First open the Source file you want to code. This will create a new node named whatever it is that you highlighted. click Text or Region. This will open in detail view. under PDF Selection. This will using the multiples open in detail view. You can also press ENTER to code at the current node. c Code or uncode at the selected node. NVivo will suggest existing nodes in the hierarchy. you can: a Select the location for the node (a folder or parent node). HANDY HINT: The currently selected (or last used) node displays on the Quick Coding bar. at (or below) the selected location. The Quick Coding bar provides a fast way to code or uncode.Quick coding tool bar All of the above coding functions can be done by using the quick coding tool bar. b Enter or select a node. that you can choose from. as well as nodes you have recently coded at. It is located at the base of detail view and becomes active only when a codable document is opened and something is highlighted for coding. As you type. With the Quick Coding bar. The Code At list includes nodes and descendant (child) nodes in the current location. You can also create a new node in the selected location by entering a unique name. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 21 . d Make a node from selected text (code In Vivo) e Hide the Quick Coding bar. • © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 22 . HANDY HINT: You may want to arrange the workspace so that Detail View is to the right of the node list. a confirmation message is briefly displayed in the NVivo status bar or you can turn on the coding stripes. NOTE To indicate that coding is successful. and The more coding stripes in view the more raise the number of stripes to at memory the computer will require. On the View ribbon. You can modify the display of coding stripes to see the content that meets your defined criteria. in the Coding group. Drag the selected content to the node. however you HANDY HINT: I prefer to turn on can change this number to whatever you think is stripes for Nodes Recently Coded necessary. Open a source or node in Detail View. List Detail Coding Stripes Coding stripes are coloured bars displayed alongside source or node content that allow you to see how the content is coded. during the coding process. Other options are useful when exploring your coding and data. The default number of stripes is 7. Select the content you want to code. least 40. select Coding Stripes button and select your preferred approach to coding stripes. See Customize the workspace (Display Detail View on the right) for more information from the HELP files. To show coding stripes for all nodes: • • • Open the source or node.Drag and drop coding You can drag and drop to code selected content at an existing node: • • • • Display your nodes in List View. ‘Industry types’ – it would not fit the • You are more likely to lose or confuse ideas in an criteria of a sort of industry type. you may want to: Include more of the context around coded content—for example. expand coding to include the whole sentence or paragraph. As you review the coded data at a node. Coding is rarely a one-stage process. • Develop ideas by coding content to other nodes. take nodes some time to reflect on what you have discovered. unwieldy node structure. • Remove some of the coded content by 'uncoding' it (especially useful if you used a Text Search query to do some broad-brush coding). ‘car building’ and ‘hairdressing’ then they would be a sort of industry type. you will often see ways to improve your coding—for example. • Create or reorganize nodes as you respond to what you are seeing in the coded data. HANDY HINT: To help decide if Take time out from coding to reflect on your nodes and nodes should be placed into a organize the themes that are emerging. • © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 23 . Reasons for hierarchy – ask yourself “is the keeping your nodes organized include: child node a sort of the potential parent node?” For example if you • Being able to find your nodes easily saves time are considering whether to put a during the coding process. node called ‘Economics’ into a • If you have trouble finding a node. However if you had nodes relating to ‘fish farming’.Coding Stripes To learn more about the many functions of coding stripes –explore the help pages Task 15: Turn coding stripes on for recent coded Node hierarchies that work and those that don’t. After exploring and coding a source or number of sources. This process is termed 'coding-on'. you are less hierarchy (parent node) called likely to use it consistently. For example. When you move a node. Try not to force nodes into a hierarchy—if a node is not related to any other concept then leave it at the top level. annotations. • Right mouse click over the highlighted Node and select Paste OR • From the Home ribbon – select Paste NOTE: You can also drag and drop nodes to move them between folders and within hierarchies. rename. links and relationships. o Try not to combine concepts in a node. select the required node. Try not to nest more than 3 levels deep within a hierarchy if you can help it.Here are some strategies for building an efficient node structure: • • Keep node names short and pertinent. Move nodes to a new parent or folder • In List View. Right mouse click over the highlighted Node and select Merge OR From the Home ribbon – select Merge © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 24 . Prune your nodes regularly. you could merge the nodes farming and cultivation into the node agriculture. Make sure a node only appears once in the whole hierarchy. merge some nodes Right mouse click over the highlighted Node and select Cut OR From the Home ribbon – select Cut Select a destination node. Make a node to gather 'great quotes'. For example. To merge one or more nodes into a 'target' node: • • • • • • Task 16: Rename. coding. sort and In List View. • Right mouse click over the highlighted Node and select Cut OR • From the Home ribbon – select Cut • Select a destination node folder or parent node. instead of coding some text at “rigour in qualitative research”. to avoid having a “Node Virus”. reorganize. Merge one or more nodes into an existing node You can merge one or more nodes into another existing node. move nodes and merge nodes. delete nodes. This can be useful when two nodes have a similar meaning or content. it retains it classification. select the required node(s). Remember that you will be able to use queries to gather your coded content in all sorts of combinations—for example. code it at both of a node for “Rigour “ and a node for “Qualitative research”. • • • • • Moving and merging Nodes Nodes are fully editable and do not need to be static – you can code or uncode content within nodes. find all content coded at the node Rigour AND at the node Qualitative research. Merge. The results are displayed in Detail View according to the query options you defined. The best way to become familiar is to run some simple queries and preview the results. and allows you to name and describe the query 5 Click the Run button to run the query. You can undertake more advanced functions to ask questions and find patterns based on your coding and check for coding consistency among team members. Do you want a temporary preview of results or do you want to save them in a node or a set? The default is to preview first. refined. By default. You can find specific words or those that occur most frequently. The query questions you ask can be developed. Each of these vary in complexity but most have the same structure. you can create quick and simple queries to get a sense of what is happening in the data or you can build detailed queries for a more focused perspective. In this basics workshop we will cover the basic search techniques of Text search and Word Frequency. 4 The General tab becomes active only when you elect to save the query. Queries are essentially NVivo’s name for criteria questions. The query results can be previewed or saved for further analysis. annotations and nodes. queries are stored in the Queries folder. A Matrix coding query will be demonstrated and further links to self-help guides about how to do these are provided in the next chapter. you can create queries to find and analyze the words or phrases in your sources.Chapter 4: Basic search functions Queries provide a flexible way to gather and explore subsets of your data. and saved for running again another time. 1 The Criteria tab is used to define the criteria for the query—what are you looking for and where do you want to look? 2 The Query Options tab is used to determine how the query results are displayed and stored. reviewed. which is a great place to start  3 The Add to Project check box gives you the option to save the query. In NVivo. How do I set up a query? NVivo queries offer a flexible approach to exploring your data. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 25 . When you create any type of query the query properties dialogue box comes up. This means you can easily run the query again. As you grow in confidence you can look at building more complex criteria and storing your results in nodes and sets. folders or search folders. or want to refine and rerun the query. only in your annotations or both. you can save the matches for an individual word as a node. You can select the source content you want to search by selecting sources. Text search The computerisation of text information allows us to find all occurrences of a word. Task 17: Conduct a text search for a word © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 26 . select New Query then Text Search OR From the Query ribbon select Text Search. nodes. While you cannot save Word Frequency query results. Right mouse click in the white space of list view. sets. To run a search for a specific word: • Select Queries in Navigation view to show the list of saved queries in the list view. use the Last Run Query button in the query ribbon. You can choose to search only the primary content of your sources. • The query dialogue box will open • add your search term • Select the degree of similarity you require for your terms (see Help for more detail on this) • Choose whether you want Text. This is a computerised search function and therefore is character specific although we do have some Boolean search and wildcard functions available. phrase. refer to Run a Word Frequency query in Help files for more information. or concept.NOTE The Query Options tab is not available for Word Frequency or Coding Comparison queries. Annotations or both • Select from which sources you want the computer to search • Select RUN • • HANDY HINT: If you use preview Note: If you like the results you get. you can select all and save them as a node for that term only for a query and decide to save the query question or results. however it is a fabulous way to commence exploring your data. select New Query then Word frequency OR From the Query ribbon select Word frequency. Annotations or both • Select from which sources you want the computer to search • Reduce the number of words to display and raise the minimum length. Tree Map and Cluster analysis visualisations from the right hand side tabs. • Select RUN • The results will display in an excel table format – you can select the column headers to adjust the sort method If you double click on any of the words in the table it will open to show you them in context. Depending on your research methodology. You can also view the results using Tag Cloud. • • HANDY HINT: If you search for 1000 words with minimum length of 1 you will retrieve a count of all I. To run a word frequency: • • • • Select Queries in Navigation view to show the list of saved queries in the list view. Right mouse click in the white space of list view.Word frequency Just as we can search for a specific word. the word frequency function allows us to find the most frequently occurring words or concepts. But it is dependent on the results you are trying to achieve. at. is. Task 18: Conduct a word frequency for journal articles © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 27 . in etc words (unless these are in the in stop word list) which are unlikely to be of use. I suggest a maximum of 100 words and minimum length of 4. this may not seem directly relevant to your analysis. The query dialogue box will open • Select the degree of similarity you require for your terms (see Help for more detail on this) • Choose whether you want Text. ensuring they are separated by a space.Stop Words NVivo provides a set of default stop words for most language contents. words and remove the To review the stop words list for a project: • • • word “ourselves” Select File then Project Properties On the general tab select the Stop Words button. like conjunctions or prepositions that may not be meaningful to your analysis. The default stop words are unlikely to be significant words. You can view the stop words associated with each language. and you can customize the Task 19: Locate stop stop words by adding or removing words from the stop word list. Note: Matrix coding may be shown if time permits but will be covered in the Intermediate workshop. Add or remove words as appropriate to your own project. Matrix coding query Matrix coding query is one of the most complex but very powerful queries and allows us to find a combination of items (usually nodes and attributes) and display the results in a table. Each cell of the matrix table is a live direct link to all of the data that fits the criteria for the cell. © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 28 . Twitter. What to expect in NVivo Intermediate training The intermediate workshop will build on the skills covered in this basic workshop. NVivo will automatically install Help files on your computer (offline Help) but defaults to try to access online Help (via the web if you have an Internet connection). then point to Help. NVivo opens the installed offline Help. If you are not connected to the Internet.Chapter 5: Moving on with NVivo Where to get help? There are a number of ways in which you can seek help for using NVivo. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Working with Multimedia sources – audio and video Coding multimedia sources Using the find and advanced find tool bar Working with Collections and search folders Creating node and source classifications and attributes i) Using bibliographic data 6) Creating advanced queries What to expect in NVivo Advanced training The advanced workshop will build on the skills covered in the basic and intermediate workshop. Online help is to ensure you are getting the most up to date and accurate information at all times. QSR Forum as well as view many tutorials on the QSR You Tube channel. The advanced workshop teaches very specific functions of NVivo and appropriate for users who frequently use NVivo and wish to advance their skills. To open the Help. There is a built in Help files which cover every aspect of using NVivo. click the Help button at the bottom of the window Alternatively you can access the NVivo Community through Facebook. It is really important that you consolidate the basic skills before moving into the intermediate workshop. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Working with and analysing datasets Revisiting node and source classifications and attributes Creating reports Working with the modelling tool Creating visualisations © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 29 . It is really important that you consolidate your skills before moving into the advanced workshop. Click the Help icon in the upper right of the NVivo ribbon or any dialog box— when you open the Help from a dialog box. The direct live links to all of these resources are located on the front opening page of the Help files. LinkedIn. and then click NVivo Help. This is an online webinar workshop not face to face. the relevant topic is displayed. do any of the following: • • • • Press F1 Click the File tab. On the NVivo Welcome screen. Qualitative analysis: practice and innovation. Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo First edition. Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide (2nd edition). Crows Nest. Lyn. What is the difference between text pointer and region pointer and how do I change this? Which of your nodes has the most coding? Insert an annotation in a source file Turn annotation view on or off Change the screen to be detail view right or bottom Turn on coding stripes Run a text frequency for one journal article Any questions/queries you have bring with you to the intermediate workshop!  © Flinders University – Centre for Educational ICT 30 . Douglas. Revision tasks Locate where the project file has been saved. The coding manual for qualitative researchers Richards. Sage Publications Ltd. Sage Publications Ltd. 2009.S. 2009. Pat. Make a backup copy of your project to a USB. Johnny.W: Allen & Unwin. 2007. Bazeley. 2002. Import your journal articles Create a subfolder in memos for literature abstracts.Some useful resources: Saldana. Create a project journal sources file. N. Ezzy.