Documenting the Undocumented Trail: The Hidden Process of Changing Computer-Mediated Communication Into Data

• In Event: Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Advanced Technologies for Learning Posters

Abstract

Gathering text from computer mediated communication (CMC) environments and putting it into a form suitable for analysis with a computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) is surprisingly difficult. Qualitative researchers typically lack programming skills or resources to get a programmer to convert raw online data to a form suitable for analysis. This poster demonstrates how a script was developed to transform discussion forum data from a learning management system (LMS) into anonymized data ready for CAQDAS, rather than manually manipulating individual documents to replace identifying information and maintain threading and organization, thus, streamlining the process. Implications include how to use and modify these scripts as well as how to approach programmers to get their help.

Authors

• Amber N. Warren, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Jay A. Pfaffman, University of South Alabama