In this paper, we report our experience using the Five-Level QDA® method to guide the design of an introductory ATLAS.ti workshop. By focusing on the translation process between analytic strategies and the tactics of the software, we sought to help students harness ATLAS.ti powerfully. The highlighted respondent 'case 6' in the example has some college education, is a female, single, and has no children. She answered the question: 'Do children bring happiness' with yes. ATLAS.ti automatically creates a group that contains all survey data in. A first commercial version of ATLAS.ti was released in 1993 to the market by company 'Scientific Software Development,' later ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH. The methodological roots of ATLAS.ti lie in - but are not restricted to grounded theory, content analysis and knowledge elicitation. ATLAS.ti is a powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data. It offers a variety of sophisticated tools for accomplishing the tasks associated with any systematic approach to 'soft' data. Yes, please send me updates on new features via e-mail. For further information please see our privacy policy.
Few studies have explored approaches to teaching qualitative data analysis software (QDAS). As more researchers rely on self-teaching, more research into best practices for developing QDAS expertise is warranted. In this paper, we report our experience using the Five-Level QDA® method to guide the design of an introductory ATLAS.ti workshop. By focusing on the translation process between analytic strategies and the tactics of the software, we sought to help students harness ATLAS.ti powerfully. Using a case study and reflective practice approach, we reviewed instructional materials, observational field notes, instructor reflections, student questionnaires, and interviews to describe what happened during the workshop as well as instructor and learner perceptions of the method. For the method to be successful, methodological competence prior to training and ongoing support after training are necessary, both of which may be fostered by using community-building strategies during and after instruction. Hands-on exploration of the software components during the workshop, including demonstration of both in-progress and completed projects by the instructor and peers, can bring life to the Five-Level QDA method. While the method emphasizes that powerful use of the software requires analytic strategies to drive software tactics, learners may view the two as mutually constituting. Implications for teaching QDAS as well as the development of the Five-Level QDA method are explored.
ATLAS.ti offers various qualitative data analysis (QDA) solutions for researchers and students working with qualitative data. In this review, you’ll learn about how we have used two different ATLAS.ti products--ATLAS.ti desktop and ATLAS.ti Cloud (beta version)—a quick capabilities comparison of each, and their best uses for research and pedagogy.
ATLAS.ti Homepage
How Whitney used ATLAS.ti Desktop
I first learned about ATLAS.ti during my research methods course when we received an introduction and demo on the software from Dr. Ricardo Contreras, one of ATLAS.ti’s senior trainers and an anthropologist and ethnographer. I was immediately struck by the software’s ability to annotate traditional text documents as well as video, images, geo locations, and audio and to make connections within and across thousands of documents in a single project. The software also allows for and encourages documentation throughout the coding and analysis processes—capabilities very useful for large-scale projects as well as grounded theory and other inductive research methodologies.
ATLAS.ti Desktop interface with documents and codes
To get my feet wet and learn the software, I conducted a self-study of my responses to student writing for a CCCC presentation on translingual, antiracist writing practices. The ATLAS.ti interface and coding features were easy to use and helped me move quickly through the coding process. In fact, I spent significantly more time anonymizing and preparing the data than I did in the coding process. Although I was already working with data I produced, the ability to include descriptions for each code helped me stay accurate during the coding and begin articulating my commenting practices for the CCCC presentation. To analyze the data, I used the code comparison analysis feature. While ATLAS.ti clearly made this small qualitative analysis project smoother and more accurate, a raw comparison of code frequencies is only the tip of the iceberg for ATLAS.ti. I look forward to exploring more, particularly data visualizations, coding mixed media, and Twitter imports (see examples below).
ATLAS.ti Twitter import feature
How Angela used ATLAS.ti Cloud (beta)
I’ve used ATLAST.ti Cloud (beta) for both my own research as well as a tool for student projects. In this short video, I outline some of the basic functionalities of this web-based, qualitative coding software, giving you the information you need to quickly start up and begin using ATLAS.ti Cloud (beta).