NVivo | Qualitative Data Analysis Graduate Assistant
David started working in the UBC Library Research Commons in September of 2018. Since then, David, and his teaching partner Amir Michalovich, have taken the already great NVivo workshops to the next level. David’s and Amir’s synergy has made it possible for them to constantly improve on their already great work. Because they are constantly seeking ways to collaborate, they have been able to develop a new workshop which bridges the gap between Literature Reviews and NVivo. They also continue to offer the popular NVivo workshops to learn the program on its own. Sign-up for one or several of our NVivo workshops.
Within only a few minutes of having David as your instructor in the workshop or one-on-one consult setting, his natural ability as a teacher shines. He is not merely satisfied to share information with his peers and students. He is committed to ensuring others understand and experience the material in a way that is accessible to them. We were able to catch up with David recently and ask him a few questions.
What areas does your own graduate research focus on?
I am interested in understanding the costs that meritocratic school practices have for high-achieving students, the emotions and feelings experienced by these people; and in unpacking, from an experiential point of view, what meritocracy actually entails for actors affected by these discourses. From a general perspective, my research can be positioned in what has been called as elite schooling studies.
Which Research Commons tools have you been able to use for your work? How did you use them?
I use various reference managers. I particularly like Zotero, but I also have experience using Mendeley and EndNote. I learned to use them working on different professional and academic projects and I find them really useful to enrich the process of conducting lit reviews. I have also used qualitative data analysis software in different situations: evaluating higher education projects and organizing the unstructured data that I have produced during my fieldwork.
What one thing about the Research Commons do you wish more graduate students knew about?
I think that if you want to take advantage of the resources that the RC has, you have to do it early in your career/degree. This would allow you to have a closer relationship with the literature you are working with and with the data that you are analyzing and maybe, if you are systematic enough, to be more productive and return to your sources to reanalyze them in the future.
To find out more about any of the resources that David mentioned, email us at research.commons@ubc.ca.
Regardless of how much or little you know about qualitative data analysis, bring your questions to David in one of his workshops or one-on-one consults.