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Introduction to NVivo

Overview of basic mechanics of using NVivo to organize and analyze qualitative data.

Create Code Schems

  • Codes represent the concepts to be tagged in the research as well as the organization and relation between these concepts.
  • Nodes are the primary concepts or codes.  Nodes are created under the Create tab of the toolbar at the top.
  • Nodes can be hierarchically arranged.
  • Note: great thought should be paid to thinking about the code schema before coding files with these codes commences.  Nodes can always be added, but review of coded files will have to be done again when new codes are added.

 

  • Double click a node to see every fragment coded with that node in each file.
  • Each document will be linked, followed by each fragment with the specific node.
  • By default, text representations are included in the default view. 
    • On the right side, there are tabs that represent each type of document tagged by this node. 
    • For example, the default view will display the transcript of an interview, but clicking on Video. will display the transcript and the video snippet.
  • The proportion of each document that is captured by each coded section is displayed above the coded section.

Create Relationships

Relationships are another way to organize your research data.  They can be applied to your individuals (cases), to your concepts (nodes), or both.

  • Relationships can be directional (Bob and Janet both work for Kim), symmetrical (Bob, Janet, and Kim are all on the same project team), or associative (Bob, Janet, and Kim all work for Duke).
  • Defining relationships allows you to quickly pull together information to answer questions like:
    • How to survey responses from people who live in Durham county differ from responses from people who live in Wake or Orange counties?
    • How do responses about job satisfaction differ across departments or supervisors?
    • Are responses from employees who work the night shift differ from those who work normal office hours?
  • To code a relationship, first define a relationship type, then under relationships, you can connect any two nodes or cases with that relationship.
  • In the above example, the Type field describes the nature of the relationship. Most of the visible relationships ties respondents to places with the relationship "grew up in."