ATLAS TI and Literature Review

From the first exposure to ATLAS TI, I have thought that the ATLAS TI has more potential applications than coding primary documents in qualitative research projects.

I have experimented with it in Biblical exegesis of the Greek NT. I use discourse analysis principles to diagram the text in colons. The ability to code phrases and clauses by relationship and then sort is a helpful technique. It would be even more useful if existing data for semantic domains (Louw & Nida Lexicon) and the morphology tagged texts could be imported with the codes intact. If textual variants were able to be added as part of the text it would create a whole new domain for New Testament Textual criticism. This would allow the exegete to search for relationships on multiple levels. One potential drawback is the locking feature for primary documents. As the analytical process is followed it often will change diagrams in colons. The program should be able to allow these changes for it to be functional in this realm.

I also used ATLAS TI for the coding of the journal articles in the literature review for our research project. Many of the journal articles are already available in electronic format. The program, at least from documentation, does not have the ability to import PDF documents. I purchased a software package for $49 that converted PDF to RTF or MS DOC formats. Articles from some publishers would not reformat or would have portions in a "non-standard" format.
I attempted to cut and paste these from the screen which usually worked. I then imported them as separate hermeneutical unit in ATLAS TI and did coding as usual. I output the results for each code and proceeded as normal to organize the review. One detail that was lost with this method was the page number for a citation purposes. I kept the PDF document and was usually able to find the paragraph very quickly. A few times I was forced to use the search feature. I believe it worked very well to organize the literature.

Project Proposal

Information Literacy

Faculty Study

Research Question

I would like to do a study of faculty perceptions of what is Information Literacy. The two aspects that I would like to focus on are: what knowledge and skills do our graduates need; and what are they doing to contribute to this in their classes.

Existing Data

All departments and divisions have created goals and objectives, some of which relate to Information Literacy. The departments and divisions are required to collect data for measuring outcomes.

Existing Theories

I believe the LBC faculty has a minimal view of Information Literacy. Some faculty may view it as a Library only issue and as an intrusion into their territory. This will be developed as a common experience from the literature review.

Expected Results

I expect that the faculty will have a better grasp of Information Literacy in their own fields of study but have not projected it to the lifelong needs of students/graduates.

Data Collection and Analysis

I intend to use a series of e-mail questions that will elicit open ended responses to four aspects of Information Literacy; recognizing a research need, research skills, critical thinking, and communication skills. I expect to use a few interviews for verification and clarification where appropriate.

I expect to use up to ten faculty subjects and will need to secure our College IRB approval and subject approvals. Responses in the report will be kept confidential. The faculty should be distributed across the divisions. I would like to have at least two representatives from the English Department since they are critical to the program.

The transcripts of the responses will be coded using qualitative research methods. The data will then be analyzed and theory developed concerning the state of Information Literacy at LBC from the view of faculty. The report will be reviewed by faculty participants and conclusions may be developed to enhance the College Information Literacy program.

Qualitative Fieldwork

Experience-near and experience-distant concepts (G&C, pp. 65-67)

This discussion in the text caused me to reread the section several times. It seems that the authors were trying to correlate issues of the study with the level of involvement of the observer with the subjects being studied. I would think it would have been better to lead with this as the thesis, provide some of the alternative labels for the concept and then the positives and negatives. The latter seem to become lost in the discussion. The distance is sometimes determined by the nature of the study such as an ethnological study. When the observer is a member of the same group as the subjects, it may enhance an understanding. It would seem that this is an advantage in quickly recognizing some issues but may also prevent the observer from seeing shared biases.

Theory and Practice

A subjective observation from reading the chapters on fieldwork is that I feel like enough has been said about theory. Practice exercises or beginning my own required study should follow. It was repeated throughout the chapters how the practice of carrying out qualitative research needs to adjust as the study proceeds. I feel like I need to test whether I have understood the concepts correctly.

Permissions (G&C, pp.87-90)

The British perspective on gaining permissions is evident in this section. It does not seem like they need to have the proposed study approved by an IRB at the same depth as in the USA. The authors seemed to think it was more of a problem to gain institutional and unit permission.

Guest Speaker January 25

GELLibrary

Dr. C's topic is worthy of research and is a real need for the world to correct the exploitation of children.

I had trouble with her seeking of data. The searching for articles in news media and websites with a data miner only shows that the topic was mentioned. Published news is subject to editing and cutting of material from the field. Searching for information on the wire services would avoid the editing process.

The choice of topic came with an agenda. Was the agenda to to talk about the problem or have a solution that changes what is happening?

GELLibrary

GELLibrary

Qualitative Research

I learned something about the research interests of other PhD students and the professor in the first class.