Hmm - I'd actually go for NUDIST/Atlas/HyperResearch as well, they are
designed to handle large bodies of data, and I reckon that with that number
of questionnaires you could very quickly build up a laaaaarge quantity, and
with the combination of SPSS - if you get too into fine coding for
qualitative questions, it's creating a lot of work! A LOT A LOT!
Also, on a more theoretical level, over-detailed coding of written
open-ended questions is risky because:
You may be reading far too much in to what someone has written without you
being 'there'
Conversation is very different - there is interaction as well as
interpretation. Many people use an abbreviated form of English (or whatever
language) when filling out open-ended questions - go too deep and you could
lose the meaning or read far too much into it.
Over-coding generally is a problem, as we have angsted about last year (I
made 'angsted' up by the way)
Just my thoughts,
Sarah D
> ----------
> From: Mica Allan
> Reply To: qual-software
> Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 3:00 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Suitable QSP's
>
> Can anyone give advice as to the most suitable software package to
> use to analyse the following data - I have a fellow researcher who is
> about to embark on the following data collection.....
>
> 1,500 - 2,000 questionnaires will generate mainly quantitative
> data, (where SPSS enters the scene) however, there are also quite
> a few open-ended questions - approx. 25 in the questionnaire
> which could elicit answers of anything from a few words to a few
> paragraphs - potentially.
>
> Given that NVivo is not suitable for such large chunks of data, does
> anyone have any ideas on what would be the most suitable
> analysis package to use? My feeling is that as the qualitative data
> is going to be gathered on paper, rather than face to face, this may
> significantly reduce the length of data generated and, this said,
> then NVivo may be suitable to use, given that you can code at a
> very detailed level.
>
> Any ideas/opinions, most welcome.
>
> With thanks,
>
> - Mica
>
>
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