Tools for teaching Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis

by Christina Silver, author of Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide, Second Edition with Ann Lewins.

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Software packages designed to facilitate qualitative data analysis have been available since the mid-1980s, and debate about how best to teach them continues to this day. (They are collectively known as CAQDAS-packages, for Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS). A key area of discussion has coalesced around the timing and integration of the teaching of qualitative methods (the strategies) and software tools we use to operationalise those methods (the tactics), in what I call the ‘whether, how and when’ debate.  

Continual reflection and discussion of these issues, as well as research into the adoption of CAQDAS-packages, has resulted in teaching and learning tools that transcend the qualitative methodologies being used, the software programs chosen,  and the teaching modes that are adapted for different contexts. An important prerequisite in learning how to use the software effectively is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role, functioning and potential of CAQDAS-packages in general before learning how to operate a particular CAQDAS-package. This leads to the following three teaching and learning tools:

• Introducing researchers to the kinds of analytic activities CAQDAS-packages are designed to facilitate (the Analytic Activities framework; Lewins & Silver 2007; Silver & Lewins, 2014; Silver & Lewins, forthcoming).

• Teaching researchers to harness CAQDAS-packages powerfully whatever the chosen methodology or software program (the Five-Level QDA method; Woolf & Silver 2018, Silver & Woolf 2019)

• Operationalising learning that attends to diverse learning styles (the Recurring Hourglass instructional design; Silver & Woolf 2015).

Introducing researchers to the sorts of analytic activities CAQDAS-packages are designed to facilitate : The Analytic Activities framework

When Ann Lewins and I were writing the first edition of our textbook Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide (2007, 2014) we developed a framework for describing the sorts of analytic activities that CAQDAS-packages are designed to facilitate. Participants attending most of our CAQDAS workshops were working in different contexts and therefore had diverse needs, so we needed a way of illustrating the potential of these software programs that made sense to everyone.  In other words, we needed a way of communicating the role of CAQDAS-packages in the context of the complex field of qualitative data analysis with its numerous paradigms, methodologies, techniques and tools.

Despite this diversity, there is commonality at a high-level; whatever data you’re working with, methodology and analytic approach you’re taking, or digital tools you’re using, we all engage in five broad “analytic activities”: integration, organisation, exploration, reflection, and interrogation. Dedicated CAQDAS-packages are designed to facilitate the range of analytic approaches, so have tools that can be harnessed to accomplish the tasks related to these activities. It is this flexibility and the access they provide to the different elements of the analysis that makes them so powerful.

The Analytic Activities framework (see Figure 1.) can be used to introduce researchers to both the nature and characteristics of qualitative data analysis and to the potential of CAQDAS-packages for facilitating analysis and interpretation. They are high-level activities rather than specific techniques or tasks, and the extent, manner and sequence in which they are undertaken varies according to research objectives, methodologies and outcome requirements.

Figure 1. High-level Analytic Activities involved in qualitative and mixed-methods analysis and facilitated by CAQDAS-packages (adapted from Silver & Lewins 2014).

This is because what we do when we analyse qualitative data and the analytic tasks we develop iteratively as we proceed, are contingent on the analytic methods we employ. So, when doing a thematic analysis we develop different analytic tasks than when we do a discourse analysis or a grounded theory, and so on. And so it follows, that we use digital tools to accomplish these analytic tasks in different ways, for different purposes, in different sequences etc.

Introducing qualitative data analysis using the Analytic Activities framework allows different analytic methods (what we plan to do, our strategies) to be discussed concretely and practically in the context of CAQDAS tools (how we plan to do it, our tactics).

Teaching researchers to harness CAQDAS-packages powerfully whatever the chosen methodology or software program The Five-Level QDA method

The Analytic Activities framework is designed to introduce the principles of computer-assisted QDA in an integrated way, but it is also necessary to teach researchers how to operationalise methods by teaching how specific tasks can be accomplished using the tools provided by CAQDAS-packages. This is where the CAQDAS-pedagogy that Nick Woolf and I developed - the Five-Level QDA method - comes in.  

It is an adaptable framework that unpacks the unconscious processes of expert-users, so students and researchers can learn and adopt tools quickly and easily. It was developed in relation to, and tested across, all major CAQDAS-packages, thus giving it universal applicability. It’s key principle is the that our analytic strategies (what we plan to do) are separate from and should drive our software tactics (how we plan to do it). This involves translating strategies into tactics in an iterative process as depicted in Figure 2, such that software tools are used because they are appropriate for each individual analytic task as it is formulated in context.

Figure 2. The Five-Level QDA process (adapted from Woolf & Silver 2018).

The Five-Level QDA method is relevant across methodologies and software programs because it focuses at the level of the analytic task, and many of the same analytic tasks are accomplished in projects using different analytic methods.  Although analytic tasks are formulated in relation to methodology, at the moment they are accomplished, it is the task itself that is of importance. The Five-Level QDA method is not a new or different analytic approach but a concrete way of unpacking the process that experts already use when they harness the full power of CAQDAS-packages, but without having the software’s features drive the data analysis process.

To supplement our textbooks, we developed freely available instructional videos for three CAQADS-packages (ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, and NVivo) that bring the process to life, and Analytic Planning Worksheets to scaffold the translation process.

·       Component Orientation videos provide short orientations to how each software-component works, and the actions that can be taken on them (augmenting chapter 5 of each textbook);

·       Case Illustration videos demonstrate the two case illustrations documented in chapters 8 and 9 of each textbook; and

·       Harnessing Component videos demonstrate different ways to harness components for analytic tasks in the context of real-world projects (illustrating translation and the flexibility of the software that is discussed in chapter 6).

The developmental impetus was to facilitate the learning of CAQDAS-packages so that their power can be fully harnessed as quickly and easily as possible. In so-doing 5LQDA also contributes to demystifying analytic processes by explicating the unconscious cognitive processes involved in analysis and emphasising the need to explicitly separate analytic strategies and software tactics to ensure the former drive the latter.

Operationalising learning that attends to diverse learning styles : The Recurring Hourglass instructional design

At the practical level teachers of qualitative methods and tools design a curriculum, workshop or apprenticeship. The Recurring Hourglass instructional design evolved  throughout the first 10 years of my CAQDAS teaching trajectory in response to my own teaching experiences, discussions and collaborations with colleagues, pedagogic research and existing theories (in particular the elaboration theory of instruction, Reigeluth, 19791). It was designed to build knowledge cumulatively and to reflect the diversity in how students learn by alternating foci of instruction (narrow and broad) and level of learning (whole group, small group, individual); hence the term ‘recurring hourglass’. Figure 3. Illustrates part of a Recurring Hourglass Instructional Design, using a two-day workshop model with Five-Level QDA embedded as an example.

Figure 3. Part of a Recurring Hourglass Instructional Design – example of a two-day workshop model with Fivel-Level QDA embedded (Silver & Woolf 2015).

Each learning chunk is explicit concerning its objectives and the instructional strategies employed as well as the foci and level of learning. Examples of objectives include contextual discussions, guided-instruction, analytic planning and illustrative discussions and instructional strategies include demonstrations, discussions, exercises, student presentations, illustrations and individual support and feedback.

The Recurring Hourglass instructional design is flexible and adaptable, for teaching qualitative methods and tools in an integrated way and used in teaching and learning encounters of varying lengths and formats.  The way learning activities are alternated in terms of their frequency and sequence as well as content differs according to the teaching format, learner needs, and the momentum and progress of each learning encounter. Whatever the specifics of an integrated instructional design, basing it on the recurring hourglass model enables methodologically relevant facilitation of learning, which involves illustrating uses of software tools in a variety of analytic contexts.

In CAQDAS workshops this includes an overview of the software as a whole, illustration of its longer-term potential in later phases of a data analysis, and the appropriate use of software features in different phases of a data analysis. The complexity of CAQDAS packages and the diversity of learners’ prior experience and current needs requires careful management in order to balance the acquisition of abstract knowledge and practical hands-on experience. The recurring hourglass instructional design aims to reflect and facilitate this.

Learn more!

For more information about the Analytic Activities framework, the Five-Level QDA method or the Recurring Hourglass Instructional Design and how they can be used to teach researchers to analyse and interpret findings, please refer to the following resources:

• Silver C. & Lewins A (2014) Using Software in Qualitative Research: A Step-by-Step Guide, 2e. Sage Publications (3rd edition forthcoming)

• Woolf, N & Silver, C. (2018)​ Qualitative analysis using ATLAS.ti / MAXQDA / NVivo : The Five-Level QDA Method, Routledge.

• Silver C, & Woolf, N (2015) “From guided instruction to facilitation of learning: The development of Five-level QDA as a CAQDAS pedagogy that explicates the practices of expert users” International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Vol. 18, Issue 5. pp527-543

• Youtube video: Analytic Activities in qualitative and mixed-methods research by Christina Silver, 11th November 2020

• Blogpost: Analytic Activities in Qualitative Data Analysis and how they are facilitated by CAQDAS-packages, by Christina Silver, 26th September 2021

• Blogpost: Teaching qualitative methods via software: the case of coding, by Christina Silver, 16th June 2021

• Blogpost: What is Five-Level QDA all about? By Nick Woolf, 19th May 2016

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