Presented at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Computer-Aided Qualitative Research 24-25 February 2011, Macau SAR Organised by: Merlien Institute For upcoming conferences, please visit: http://www.merlien.org

1. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
2nd Computer-aided Qualitative
Research 2011 Pre-conference Workshop
Dr. Elson Szeto
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
24 February 2011
Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
No part of this slide presentation may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

2. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Understandings of the CAQDAS workflow
Enhancement of handling collected
qualitative data with the use of
the CAQDAS
Better consideration of choosing
the CAQDAS
Making informed choice of CAQDA
in processes of qualitative analysis
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3. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Comparison of the CAQDAS: ATLAS.ti 6
and NVivo 8 workflow
Differences and similarities
A case study
Lesson learned
Better consideration
Methodological utility
Practical usability
Making the informed choice
Researchers’ recommendations
3 simple rules
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4. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
ATLAS.ti 6 NVivo 8 -> 9
Environment Hermeneutic Unit (HU) Project
Data format
Management
Exploration
To be demonstrated in the workshop
Reflection
Analysis
Report
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5. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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6. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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Text: MS Word, RTF, TXT, PDF...
Video: AVI, WMV, MPEG I…
Web page: External links…
Image: JPG, PNG...
Audio: WAV, MP3…

7. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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Various types of data formats imported into ATLAS.ti opened
one-after-one in a single window.

8. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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Various types of data formats imported into NVivo.

9. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
ATLAS.ti NVivo
PDs Internals/
Free Codes Externals
Families Free Nodes
Super Families Tree Nodes
Relationships Cases/Casebook
Survey Relationships
Networks… Matrices
Model
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10. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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11. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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12. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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document links…
See also links
Annotations
Hyperlinks
Memos

13. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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14. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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15. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
ATLAS.ti
Report outputs of PDs, Code Families, Coding,
Quotations or Memos etc.
RTF or TXT formats
Network views in BMP or EWM formats
NVivo
Reports of Project, Source, Node, Relation,
Attribute and Coding summaries
Word, RTF, Excel, PDF, HTML formats
Individual document sources can be output in
Word, RTF, Excel, PDF, HTML
Media data must be in HTML format
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16. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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17. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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18. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
ATLAS.ti 6 NVivo 8 -> 9
Environment Hermeneutic Unit (HU) Project
Data format
Management
Exploration
So…?
Reflection (to be continued in the workshop)
Analysis
Report
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19. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Adapting CAQDAS in a qualitative research study
Methodology – evolving alongside the study
P.1 - Position: insider
P2 - Lens: social constructionism
P3 - Design: a mixture of ethnography, participatory
observation and grounded theory
P4 – Evidence: interview transcripts, field notes;
visual artefacts; documents
P4+ - CAQDAS adaptation: Led by grounded theory
in the process of analysis in ATLAS.ti 5
P5 – Report: A curriculum framework of a discipline
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20. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Source: Hutchison, Andrew John , Johnston, Lynne Halley and Breckon, Jeff David(2010) 'Using QSR-NVivo to
facilitate the development of a grounded theory project: an account of a worked example', International
Journal of Social Research Methodology, 13: 4, 283 — 302.
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21. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
‘...Actually, from a programmers stance, Glaser was very
positivistic about grounded theory work...’
‘…Strauss was more post-positivistic…’
…and what else…?
(to be continued in the workshop)
* Source: A working paper of Szeto
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22. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
‘…Explore, examine and interpret understandings and
meanings embedded in collected data…’
‘…A flexible research methodology, method or device
utilitised by researchers for a variety of research studies…’
‘…Interpretations grounded in data…’
‘…Generate theories or conceptual model/framework to
understand the field being investigated…’
* Szeto, E. (2010), ‘Framing an integrated framework of design curriculum in higher education:
understandings, meanings and interpretations’, Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education
9: 1, pp. 75–93, doi: 10.1386/adch.9.1.75_1
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23. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
‘...Positivistic logic and computer coding logic are very
similar..’
‘…the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and how flexible it
is…are extremely important distinctions…’
…and what else…?
(to be continued in the workshop)
* Source: A working paper of Szeto
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24. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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make their informed choice of CAQDAS
How do qualitative researchers
for their research studies?

25. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Qualitative research as process (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000; 2005)
Phase 1: The researcher as multicultural subjects
[Researchers’ position]
Phase 2: Theoretical paradigms and perspectives
[Researchers’ lens]
Phase 3: Research strategies (her/his design)
Phase 4: Methods of collection and analysis
[Researchers’ evidences]
[Phase 4+: CAQDAS in processes of analysis
i.e. CAQDAS adaptation]
Phase 5: The art, practices, and politics of
interpretation and presentation
[Researchers’ reporting]
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26. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
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Diagram 2: CAQDAS in processes of analysis (an example of NVivo 8)

27. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
ATLAS.ti NVivo
Methodological logic
CAQDAS programming
logic
To be discussed in the workshop…
CAQDAS graphical
user interface (GUI)
Personal reflections
on the use of the two
CAQDAS
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28. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Weitzman (2000) suggested 6 key
considerations:
What kind of computer user am I?
Am I choosing for one project or for the next few
years?
What kind of project(s) and database(s) will I be
working on?
What kinds of analyses am I planning to do?
How important is it to you to maintain a sense of
“closeness” to your data?
What are your financial constraints when buying
software and the hardware it needs to run on?
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29. Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Ezzy’s (2002) notion of making choice
of CAQDAS:
‘[q]ualitative data analysis cannot be done by a
computer. CAQDA software only facilitates the
analysis’ (p.111).
Research methods adopted for research studies
Types of data collected from field works
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30. Presented at the Asia-Pacific conference on
Comparing ATLAS.ti and NVivo: Methodological utility and practical usability. © 2011 by Elson Szeto. All rights reserved.
Computer-Aided Qualitative Research
24 & 25 Feb 2011, Macau SAR
For more information about our upcoming conferences
Please visit: http://www.merlien.org
30