Introduction to Working with Attribute Data

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Reginald Garrett
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1 Introduction to Working with Attribute Data

2 As you arrive, please choose any computer station and make yourself comfortable! Open Microsoft Word and save a document on your desktop titled with the participant ID at your workstation (e.g. 104.doc). In your Word document, spend 5-10 minutes, describing your ideal Thanksgiving Weekend (1-3 paragraphs is great). When you finish, send your Word document as an attachment to lisamariejacobs@gmail.com and come to the front of the room to add your demographic information to the classification spreadsheet.

3 Who am I? What is the NVivo User s Group? Today s Objectives: o Discuss the value of classification/attribute level data o Describe the process for collecting and formatting attribute level data for use in NVivo o Demonstrate importing and using attribute-level data in NVivo

4 Introductions / Getting to know who is in the room Demonstrating how to prepare/import attribute data The opportunity to practice preparing/importing attribute data Discussion/questions throughout

5 In pairs or small groups (10 minutes): o Introduce yourself, your relationship to NVivo, and your experience with qualitative and mixed methods research. o Discuss: Why collect attribute data when conducting qualitative research? How can attribute data be leveraged? What are the challenges associated with using attribute data as part of your qualitative study?

6 While you were chatting, I: o Imported your Ideal Thanksgiving narratives into an NVivo database o Quickly coded your narratives to a handful of very broad nodes (family/friends, leftovers, cooking/baking ) o Entered your demographic information into an electronic version of the Excel spreadsheet. Now, we re ready to walk through the process of connecting your demographic information or attributes to your narratives.

7 THE STEPS creating your attribute spreadsheet; preparing NVivo to receive your spreadsheet; importing your spreadsheet; and using your data

8 1. Creating your attribute spreadsheet: The best way to store your categorical/quantitative data is to collect it outside of NVivo in a program designed for collecting quantitative data (e.g. Access or Excel). Classification Name Attribute 1 Attribute 2 Attribute 3 Attribute 4 Person1 Value Value Value Value Person2 Value Value Value Value Person3 Value Value Value Value

9 2. Preparing NVivo to receive your attribute spreadsheet: Create a folder for your people nodes o Navigate to nodes o Right click on nodes and select new folder o Name your folder People or Cases

10 In order to classify entities (people, groups, organizations, etc.) in your database, you need to assign each of them to a node. You can do this in one of two ways. Today, we re going to create nodes after the source has already been imported. o o Go to Sources in the Navigation View and highlight the sources you would like to create nodes for. Right-click on these highlighted sources and select Create As Case Nodes. This process allows you to create a separate node that will match the content from each of the entities in your database. You will be asked to indicate where to store this information, select the People or Cases folder you created under nodes. Confirm that the nodes were created by looking in this folder. You should find a node for each of your sources.

11 3. Importing your Spreadsheet: Navigate to the External Data tab Select Classification Sheets This will start a Wizard o Step 1: Browse to your classification sheet (notice supported file formats) o o o Step 2: Select Node Classification as the classification type; leave create new attributes if they do not exist ticked but leave the other two options unticked. The other two options would apply if you already had a classification sheet in your database that you wanted to update. Click Next. Step 3: Select As Names and browse to file where you are storing your People or Case nodes. Leave Create new nodes if they do not exist ticked. Click Next. Step 4: Allows you to format dates/times/numbers as you d like. Click Finish.

12 Click Classifications in Navigation View Click Node Classifications Folder Note that Classification Sheets are represented by a symbol. Double click the classification symbol to open the sheet as you would with a source or a node. It will open in a tab in the Detail View.

13 What should we ask our data? o What do we want to know about the relationship between our demographic data and our qualitative data? For Example Does gender identity impact how participants discuss family/friends when they reflect on their ideal Thanksgiving (content and frequency)? Do PA/NJ natives talk similarly (content and frequency) about travel compared with participants born elsewhere? What about age? Diet?

14 The database and classification sheet are saved on a USB that will be passed around the room. The files are saved in a folder titled NVivo User Group > Practice In pairs, can add these files to one desktop and try walking through the steps using the PowerPoint slides and your notes as guides. Myself, Katie, and Ebony can answer questions as you encounter them!

15 Other topics to explore in future sessions? User s Group infrastructure (list service) and format (brief workshops)?

NVIvo 11 workshop. Hui Bian Office for Faculty Excellence

NVIvo 11 workshop. Hui Bian Office for Faculty Excellence 1 NVIvo 11 workshop Hui Bian Office for Faculty Excellence Contact information 2 Email: bianh@ecu.edu Phone: 328-5428 1001 Joyner Library, room 1006 Website: http://core.ecu.edu/ofe/st atisticsresearch/