Tonight I watched an older webinar from Delve. LaiYee Ho is the co-founder of Delve, online software for coding qualitative data. The title of the session was “Introduction to Coding Qualitative Data with Delve.” They emphasized that there are different ways to code. They defined qualitative coding as “a process of taking unstructured data and systematically categorizing excerpts in order to find themes and patterns for analysis.” Ho noted that qualitative coding is relevant for transcriptions, diary accounts, documents, case studies, audio recordings, video recordings, notes, and observations. Ho defined a code as tag or label assigned to an excerpt. Benefits of qualitative coding, according to Ho, include being systematic and rigorous, finding quotes quickly, finding patterns and themes, and checking for biases. Ho mentioned that there are generally two types of coding: inductive or deductive. Deductive coding is “top down” and can be used to develop a set of codes to explore data. Inductive coding is a ground-up approach and you allow the codes to emerge from the data. Ho shared one way of coding using a hybrid approach. First, you create some codes. Then you read transcripts and deicde what to code. After that, you collage or organize codes with excerpts. Then codes are grouped into themes. After this, a round of evaluation and revision helps improve. Finally, you write your narrative using quotes to support the themes. You can create codes based on research questions, noted Ho. Another approach is to create codes based on an existing framework. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, for example, can be used to create codes for basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment needs, for example. Ho recommended keeping track of codes in a codebook. The codebook should include the name of the code and definition. After transcribing audio, you read the transcripts and decide what to code. Ho defined descriptive coding as summarizing the topic of the data in the form of a noun. In vivo coding is when you take the literal words of the participant and create a code. Process coding is the use of codes to communicate an action in the transcript and typically end with “ing’ according to Ho. Collating codes with excerpts brings together and organizes quotes by code. Ho then stressed the importance of evaluating and revising the themes. Ho shared that after doing the coding writing the narrative involves explaining the themes and supporting them with excerpts. I did not know about Delve and appreciate the great introduction Ho gave!
