Dear All,
Sharon's point below is very well made. In the quantitative research world
gaining experience of SPSS was a very employment-useful skill to pick up during
your student days, and now that NUDIST is so widely used for qualitative
research exactly the same situation can be expected. A earlier message
indicated a concern for buying the package sigh unseen. Someone may have
already made this point, but the demo software available from the Scolari site
provides a very good sense of what the software can do and its value for a
qualiative researcher. Postgrads should try this first to see if it's the
software they need.
Tony
On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 09:17:34 +0100 Sharon Wright {PG} <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Hi
>
> As a fellow postgrad I well understand the financial constraints of buying
> something like Nudist. Analysing my own data is, however, only part of the
> picture for me. I would like to get a job at the end of my PhD and I think
> that for that reason it is important to learn one of the packages that is
> most widely used.
>
> Sharon
>
>
> > ----------
> > From: Alain Vaillancourt[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Reply To: [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: 17 June 1999 02:41
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Student Prices and Limited Versions
> >
> >
> >
> > Alexandre Enkerli wrote :
> > >
> > > Lyn says:
> > > "With the introduction of NVivo, N4's price has dropped and a student
> > price
> > > is available, making it one of the most accessible qual software
> > packages."
> > >
> > > Hm, this might be true but for some students, even a "mere" $175US
> > really
> > > is a lot of money to spend on an unfamiliar program.
> > > Just a thought, would it be possible for a QDAS company to make a
> > > bare-bones package available for free or for a very very low fee so that
> > > QDA can become more pervasive among graduate students? Something like
> > > "Eudora Light", "Photoshop LE", "OmniPage LE" or "Nisus Compact". As a
> > > marketing strategy, it can make a lot of sense and it could help a lot
> > of
> > > us students get on the right track with QDA.
> > > At least, it works very well in other software categories (such as word,
> > > audio or image processing). And more specifically for QDA, it would
> > justify
> > > the investment in time needed to start with QDA.
> > >
> > > Again, this is just a thought. Although there are QDA packages available
> > on
> > > campus here, a free (but feature-limited) package would be a
> > benediction.
> >
> > Yes, but what features would you put into such a piece of software?
> >
> > As part of my Ph.D. work I did a study of several QDA packages, mostly
> > from a human factors point of view, but also looking at the features
> > offered.
> >
> > I found all the packages I looked at usable and even useful but I found
> > them very poor on several aspects of their interfaces. Most of them
> > ignored basic human computer interface principles and practices and
> > quite a few crashed regularly or led me astray with arcane menu
> > arrangements. I started wondering if it would be possible to cobble up
> > a limited but humanly decent QDA package from all the ready to roll
> > modules available in advanced versions of Visual Basic and then
> > distribute it as shareware. The idea would not be to compete with the
> > top sellers in the field but just give an entry level package to those
> > who could not afford the price or the complexity of the biggies.
> >
> > After months of study and watching two qual software lists regularly I
> > am still wondering. In fact I am dumbfounded as to what could really
> > constitute the basic featrures for such a package. I have the
> > impression that the market, the user base, is too small and segmented to
> > define "must-have" functions common to all. There are millions upon
> > millions of users for Mail, WP or graphics software but potential QDA
> > software users only number in the tens of thousands.
> >
> > In the meantime I will go on just dreaming of the small usable piece of
> > QDA software I would like to see running on my machine instead of the
> > labyrinthine beasts I currently have.
> >
> > Au revoir!
> >
> > Alain Vaillancourt
> >
----------------------
Dr Tony Gallagher
Graduate School of Education
Queens University Belfast
Phone +44 1232 335958
Fax: +44 1232 239263
Mobile: 07801 45 8692
Email: [log in to unmask]
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