Issues and challenges in learning atla sti among graduate students

Issues and challenges in
learning ATLAS.ti among
graduate students

Rusyaizila Ramli, Nasriah Zakaria, Nursakirah Abdul Rahman, Lee
Heng Wei, Nor Athiyah Abdulah, Nurakmar Hamid

School of Computer Sciences , Universiti Sains Malaysia
Penang.Malaysia

Computer- aided qualitative research 2011

Presentation Outline
Objectives
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


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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