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Query for Qualitative Data Analysis Software June 1998

A website with links to all types of Qualitative Data Analysis Software
http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/ctipsych/web/CTI/DirTxt/qualitative.html
This is a UK site so if you want to go to U.S. links they are referred to as Overseas.

NUD*IST  stands for Nonnumerical Unstructured Data-Indexing, Searching, & Theorizing

      From: Mark Champion 
        To: Frank Conner, GRCCMAIN.POST."ncrp-list@Cerritos.edu"
   Subject: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Dear Colleagues, 

I am interested in hearing from you if you have used or are using a qualitative software package which analyzes large amounts of narrative data and
tracks themes emerging from the data. I reviewed a package called NUDIST (I could not figure out why they gave it that name), several years ago,
but have not kept up with the technology. Is there anything new, different, or better out there? 

Please reply to me directly. I will compile the data for those of you who would like to have a summary of my findings. Thanks in advance for your
response. 

Mark Champion 
Coordinator of Research and Information Management 
Community Learning Enterprise (www.cle.org) 
Grand Rapids Community College (www.grcc.cc.mi.us) 
mchampio@post.grcc.cc.mi.us

From: lkilbeck 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: RE: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Mark, 

I would be interested in any responses you get. 

Laurel M. KIlbeck 
Director, Institutional Research 
Worcester State College 
Worcester, MA 
lkilbeck@worc.mass.edu

From: Judith Beachler 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: RE: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Mark-- 
I'd appreciate receiving the responses you get. Thanks! Judy Beachler 

Judy Beachler, Director 
Office of Institutional Research 
Los Rios Community College District 
1919 Spanos Court 
Sacramento, CA 95825-3981 
916-568-3132 (phone) 
916-568-3094 (fax) 
beachlj@mail.do.losrios.cc.ca.us 
To visit our WEB site: http://irweb.do.losrios.cc.ca.us/

From: Mary Ann Heverly 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Qualitative research summary

I would be interested in a summary of the responses you receive re: 
qualitative analysis software. 

Thank you. 

Mary Ann Heverly, Ph. D. 
Director of Institutional Research 
Delaware County Community College 
901 S. Media Line Road 
Media, PA 19063-1094 
Voice: 610 359-5138 
Fax: 610 359-5343 
E-mail: mheverly@dcccnet.dccc.edu

From: "Lesh, Seymour" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Mark 

I would be interested in any responses you get about qualitative software 
packages. 

Thanks 

Sy Lesh 
Westchester Community College 
SLL3@wccmail.co.westchester.ny.us

From: Charles Van Middlesworth 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Re: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Mark, 

I presently use TextSmart from SPSS. I have examined several others - 
all require intensive time to use them. I previously used HyperResearch 
- the learning curve was greater than for TextSmart. The key to any of 
these products is acquiring a fundamental understanding of the product 
and performing "up-front" editing to insure the results you obtain is 
useable. 

Charles Van Middlesworth 
Dir, Research & Assessment 
The Metropolitan Community Colleges

From: "ADAMS" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Software

Hi, Mark! I recently obtained Catpak after hearing and reading how great 
it was. W e l l . . . it still has a long way to go. It will only analyze 
small batches of text (like 25 key words) including I, we, they, etc. I 
tried it on medical assistant survey comments which had been previously 
typed. That meant I had to take out all the headers, program names, etc. 
before I ever put it in Catpak. Also had a problem printing. Ended up 
having to save the analysis as a text document in Courier (non-proportional 
font), import it into Windows, reformat, then print. My advice? Do it 
manually with markers, tick marks, etc. However, it is not expensive; 
I think $295 or so, and I got a 30 day free trial. I should have sent it 
back, but I didn't. Good luck on your research. The idea is wonderful. 

Judy Adams--still alive and kicking (sometimes I think barely) at MCC



      From: "Findlen, George" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: FW: Software for Qualitative Analysis

What you are looking for is Content Analysis software, Mark. I have 
something at home which I got from the University of Toronto ten years 
ago. Call me at 608-788-2402 after 6:00pm CST and I'll look it up and 
read you what all I see. I vaguely recall it is called TACT -- 
something about Text Analysis something or other. 

Dr. George L. Findlen, Dean 
General Education and Educational Services 
Western Wisconsin Technical College 
P. O. Box 908 
La Crosse, WI 54602-0908 

voice 608-785-9235 
fax 608-785-9407 
email findleng@email.western.tec.wi.us

From: 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Re: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Try the software called "askSam". The distributors are 
located in Perry Florida Ph. 1-800-800-1997. 

This software only costs about $100 but I feel it is well 
worth the investment considering the search and reporting 
features it offers. 

Tony Skorjanc 
Research Officer 
Red Deer College 
Alberta, Canada

From: "Richard C. Rindone at (505) 428-1658" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: RE: Software for Qualitative Analysis

I hope you keep the summary of your findings to the BARE minimum.

From: "Jim Fillpot, Cerritos College Research Office" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Re: Software for Qualitative Analysis

NUDIST, huh? Drop that name a few times when discussing how you analyzed your 
data; I'm sure you'd wake a few folks up. 

In the next few weeks we'll probably purchase TextSmart 1.0, a product developed 
by SPSS, Inc. It costs approximately $500/550 and does not need the SPSS Base 
to run. Here's the company line: 

Text Smart is the fast, accurate, and complete solution for creating 
data values from the text of open-ended survey responses. Automated 
tools filter the words of little semantic value from the text and create 
a list of key terms that capture the meaning of open-ended responses. 
Proven 
statistical algorithms automatically analyze these key terms and 
group responses into meaningful categories in just a matter of minutes. 
Revealing tables, charts, and graphs enable you to verify the categories 
and quickly refine them to meet your research specifications. You get 
more value from your analysis and gain confidence that results are 
consistent and bias-free. For further analysis, the data values created 
with TextSmart easily match and merge with the corresponding SPSS data 
file, or any other statistical package. 

Again, that's the company line. If you want to see a real-time demo of 
TextSmart, you can check it out at www.spss.com. Check back with me in about 
three months, I'll probably have had some real-world experience with it by then 
and will give you the pros and cons. 

Aloha, 
jim 

*============================================================================* 
| Jim Fillpot, Research Analyst | E-mail: fillpot@cerritos.edu | 
| Cerritos College | V-mail: (562) 860-2451 x2193 | 
| 11110 Alondra Blvd. | Fax: (562) 467-5096 | 
| Norwalk, CA, USA 90650 | | 
*============================================================================*

From: "Ken Rushlow" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Re:      Software for Qualitative Analysis

I have heard Atlas is good for grounded research and the latest version of 
Nudist is easier and more complete, however I have not used either. 

http://www.atlasti.de/atlasneu.html 

is the Website listed for Atlas 
Good luck, I would be interested in knowing what you decide or find out. 
Both products have a downloadable test version. 

Ken Rushlow

From: "Dean Inman" 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Software

I know of no other software. I do know that in my doctoral program we 
are using NUDISTS

From: "Widlak, Prudence A." 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: RE: Software for Qualitative Analysis

Hi, Mark-- 
We tried TextSmart from SPSS to analyze open-ended responses in a 
questionnaire and found it did less and was more difficult to work with 
than we had anticipated. We cannot recommend it at this time. 
Prudy Widlak, Research Associate 
Office of Research & Planning 
College of DuPage 
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

From: Ron Gordon 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Qualitative research tools

Mark, 

I have an old qualitative tool called The Ethnograph, 
published by Qualis Research Associates, P.O. Box 2240, 
Corvallis, OR 97339, Ph. 503-754-1559 . v I don't know if 
they are still in business (my copy was released in 1991), 
but the tool does work. It takes text files formatted in a 
specific way and allows you to assign codes to passages. 
Passages can have more than one code and can overlap. Then 
it sorts according to codes and groups each code into one 
file. It's very much like the old 3X5 card method of 
qualitative analysis. I've used this several times, and 
each time it saved me hours. If they're still in business, 
I'm sure they have improved the interface somewhat. What I 
have is DOS based and a little slow, but very user friendly. 

Good luck in your search. 
Ron 

-- 

Ronald J. Gordon, Ed.D. 
Director, Research & Assessment 
Yuba Community College District 
2088 North Beale Rd. 
Marysville, CA 95901 
(530) 741-6847 

(rgordon@mail2.yuba.cc.ca.us)


From: John Tiger 
        To: Mark Champion
   Subject: Re: Software for Qualitative Analysis

The advertisements from SPSS claim their TextSmart software is programmed 
to do something like what you're after. I don't know from personal 
experience about it so you will have to research it. Perhaps others have 
heard about it.