Hi,

I will be doing surveys and interviews as part of my PhD and someone told me that I should use NVivo to analyse the data. I am just staring developing my survey instrument, protocol etc. I was wondering if any one has any NVivo? Is it easy to use ? Should I get training on NVivo first before I start developing my survey instrument/protocol?

A.

Anna10, I have a book on how to use NVIVO for qualitative research in .pdf format. If you PM me an e-mail address, I'll send it to you.

I think some universities have College Research Training programmes (this is different from departmental programmes) that first year PhD's 'must' attend and Nvivo workshop, seminars and lectures are part of such prerequisites. Check with your college and see what sort of research training they offer for their research students. Hope this helps.

D x

Have a muck about with it. If you are the type that just 'gets' computer programs, you will do fine. If you just don't seem to get on with them, you will want some training. I thought that the tutorial was more than sufficient for me learning about the program. But I tend to pick up computer programs pretty quickly.

I personally don't like it all that much because it puts me out of my comfort zone of how to do the coding. I found I was paying too much attention to the leaves and trees and not enough to the forest. However, I think that is more a personal mental issue I have. Give it a go and see what you think of it.

Because of its ability to group and put out some easy-to-read information about the codes (nodes in NVivo), I will likely copy the coding into the program as one of my iterations/checks of codes. Then I can let the computer do what computers do best (I hope).

Hi Anna

If you message me I'll forward you the dates of some NVivo courses all over the country. I have been to one and it was so useful!
Purpleflower x

Also, I will just say although I've not used any other program (so I nothing to compare it to), I love NVivo. Found it very easy to use and to organise my data. Lots of PhD students I know use it. Purpleflower x