Teaching and Learning Excel for Data Analysis
Why use Excel for data analysis?
Some researchers, whether student or experienced, rely on sophisticated analytic software designed for qualitative or quantitative research. Others can’t afford these packages, and need to rely on the everyday software they already have on their computers. In this video interview with Charlotte Brookfield, author of Using Microsoft Excel for Social Research, learn how Excel can benefit researchers, whether they will use in conjunction with another package or one its own.
If you want to learn more, you can use the code MSPACEQ323 for a 20% discount on a purchase of the book, through September 2023.
More Methodspace posts about Data Analysis
If you’ve spent any time in the world of qualitative research, you know it is gloriously, wonderfully messy. You’re usually swimming in a sea of interview transcripts, half-annotated PDFs, and those "aha!" moments scribbled on sticky notes that inevitably fall behind your desk. For a long time, it felt like our quantitative colleagues had all the flashy tools while we were left with highlighters and hope. That’s exactly why I’m so excited about the 4th edition of Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo.
Following up from the launch of Inclusive Research Methodologies, this week Sage Research Methods expands its resources with another timely launch - Sage Research Methods Video: Doing Survey Research, a new video collection supporting learners through every stage of one of the most widely used research methods.
A persistent challenge in qualitative research is synthesis. When you are working with large volumes of text (interviews, field reports, narrative accounts) across multiple countries and time periods, how do you move systematically from individual accounts to broader patterns? And how do you do so without flattening the complexity that makes qualitative data valuable in the first place?
This piece describes how causal mapping, combined with an AI-assisted coding workflow, helped address that challenge in a large, multi-country research and evaluation project and what researchers working with similarly complex qualitative datasets might take from the experience.
Rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence have instigated introspection across the data visualisation field. Though swathes of AI discourse are characterised by hype and gimmickry, if you cut through the noise, it’s clear we are facing a significant new era of technological progress. It’s time to evolve, or die, as the saying goes. But what should our relationship with AI be, particularly with generative AI? To what extent could our authentic craft be usefully augmented by an artificial one?
We’re excited to share that Research Methods - part of the 'Research Skills Toolkit' - has been updated to reflect today’s research landscape. Discover brand new content on Gen AI, Data Literacy and more – designed to support researchers with the skills they need in their careers.
In this guest post, Sage author Carol Rivas explores the current AI capabilities for researching society and culture.
There are some perennial challenges to doing a research project that all of us have faced: formulating a research question, wrestling with paradigmatic assumptions, keeping on track of a multi-year project. The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project has been helping students (and supervisors) for more than 20 years. But in a post-pandemic world with the transformations being wrought by artificial intelligence, datafication, and the rise and fall of social media platforms, there are new challenges facing researchers.
As part of our ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality online learning, we are excited to announce a series of updates to our Sage Campus courses! These enhancements are designed to support academic success by providing practical resources and empowering learners at every stage of their academic journey.