Issues and challenges in learning atla sti among graduate students

Issues and challenges in

learning ATLAS.ti among

graduate students

School of Computer Sciences , Universiti Sains Malaysia

Penang.Malaysia

Rusyaizila Ramli, Nasriah Zakaria, Nursakirah Abdul Rahman, Lee

Heng Wei, Nor Athiyah Abdulah, Nurakmar Hamid

Computer- aided qualitative research 2011

Presentation OutlineObjectives

The training

Data collection : interview

Training evaluation

Challenges

Discussion and lesson learned

Conclusions

Discussing the challenges students face when

analyzing multi-media data


Previous training lesson

learned

Time limitation during workshop gives an impact

towards participants’ understanding ATLAS.ti:

The level of knowledge

To give a better understanding how ATLAS.ti would

help participants in analyzing their data


Objectives

To provide an intensive ATLAS.ti training to

postgraduate students on qualitative data analysis and

ATLAS.ti

To share the knowledge of using ATLAS.ti as a tool

for analyzing qualitative data

To provide in-class training on ATLAS.ti instead of

just referring to manual

Better understanding ATLAS.ti


The training

To improve previous training, we did 3 major

improvement on:

Number of participants:

Less number of participants(from 19 participants to 10

participants)

Training time duration

Increase the training time duration(from 2 hours training

to 5 hours training)

Conducted hands-on session using real data

upload transcription on each PC


The training

(time management)


The training (Advertising

process)

Sent email invitation to all postgraduates students in

School of Computer Sciences, USM

Received feedbacks from 17 students in 3 days

(showed good responses among graduate students: students are

interested)


The training (Setup)

Reserved a computer laboratory with 15 computers

Installed ATLAS.ti 6 free trial version from Atlas website

Uploaded sample data to all computers for hands-on session

Printed our internal-use manual


The training (Trainers)

2 trainers:

A masters student who currently is using ATLAS.ti in his research

A mixed-mode masters student who has completed her study

Using ATLAS.ti in analyzing her data

Using her data as sample data for better understanding among participants

Student to students basis

Sharing basis

Improve in delivery compared to last year's training

Improve in content presentation to cater student's need

(based on the feedback)


The training (Content)

Hands –on session using a real-life research data :

Explain the scope of the research

Explain the rational of the data

To give better understanding about the data and how to analyze

the data using ATLAS.ti

Teach participants to use the data to:

Create codes

Create memos

Create family

Create networks


Training Evaluation

To understand the learning aspects of the ATLAS.ti

training from the participants

Each participant was given 30 minutes to fill in the

evaluation form


Training evaluation

Overall knowledge level after training

Only 2 participants rated the workshop below satisfaction:

"Fair because presentation wise not really clear and

wasting a lot of time. Should improve on training skills,

English and activity in class"

"In my opinion, I've just learn some basic usage from the

program. This is due to the interview transcript that does

not involve my research. In order to learn deeply, I feel

that we must do 'hands on' on the interview script that

involve each student's own research because we will

understand the concept and the usefulness of the program

clearly"


Training evaluation

Knowledge on ATLAS.ti

All participants mentioned that they have learned basic

knowledge on using ATLAS.ti

"about ATLAS.ti, which is good, first software that i

know on how to analyze qualitative data rather than

doing manual analysis"

"I have learned about how to use ATLAS.ti, use

menu quotations, codes, memos and networks. I also

learned how to quote, make families, make

relationship between quotation and how to import

quotation in MS words."


Training evaluation


Usefulness of ATLAS.ti for research

All participants want to use ATLAS.ti in their research

"use it for my research and also for future studies"

2 out of 10 participants want to manage his literature

review using ATLAS.ti

"Yes. I will do ATLAS.ti software to analyze my data for

interview"

"Define my literature background"

Training evaluation

Perception towards step by step training

All participants agreed that they can follow step by step

instruction by the trainers

"yes, it is easy to follow"

"this software is easy to understand. I can follow the

instruction on this course "


Training evaluation

Issues and challenges faced by the participants:

3 out of 10 participants said there is no issues or challenges

4 out of 10 participants said it is difficult to identify data, theme

and to quotes in qualitative data analysis

"on categories the exact & suitable themes, codes. It needs in

depth understanding on the transcript & the research focus as

well as target users"

"not really but I think important for researcher to identify

proper codes & themes to follow"

"to identify important data or quotes "


Training evaluation (PROs)

Participants are based on voluntarily.

Easy to cooperate during workshop as they are interested

in learning

Participants are computer literate students

Longer time : details explanation

Less participants give better interaction between

trainers and participants during workshop

Using real data giving participants better overview on

how ATLAS.ti would be helpful tool


The challenges

Participants have no background on qualitative analysis

research hence less exposure on qualitative data analysis.

Difficult to understand on qualitative data analysis

It is hard to convince the participants that ATLAS.ti can

help them in analyzing their qualitative data (because of

the student study background more on quantitative

analysis)

During hands-on session, training is delayed sometimes to

cater student's need

Even the time has been prolonged, participants are getting

tired at the end of the course hence their attention towards

the training; reduced


The challenges

Participants need more time to absorb the qualitative

data analysis and ATLAS.ti knowledge even though

we have provided real data for the hands-on session

In future, it is better if participants can bring their own

data to really understand how ATLAS.ti can be useful

Participants cannot afford to buy the product license

hence giving them a second thought on using

ATLAS.ti or not


Overcome the challenges

Make it as yearly workshop

Make early advertisement hence participants can bring

their own data


Challenges students face when

analyzing multi-media data

All of the participants do not have prior knowledge on

ATLAS.ti capability in analyzing qualitative data

Navigation on a long video will be difficult hence

affects our coding process

Not all multimedia format is compatible. So need to

convert the data or depends on the CODEC available

in the computer (.avi and .wav are compatible)


Conclusion

This training shows that time and number of

participants give a huge impact towards the successful

of ATLAS.ti training

The training gives a better exposure to participants on

qualitative analysis and using the tool

It can be a yearly event to share the knowledge of

using ATLAS.ti among graduate students in USM


Useful links on ATLAS.ti

Youtube videos on ATLAS.ti

Personal blog on ATLAS.ti

ATLAS.ti manual


THANK YOU

Q & A


Presented at the Asia-Pacific conference on

Computer-Aided Qualitative Research

24 & 25 Feb 2011, Macau SAR

For more information about our upcoming conferences

Please visit: http://www.merlien.org

Issues and challenges in learning atla sti among graduate students

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