Course How to design and conduct a qualitative content analysis in a qualitative study or a systematic review

The course P310/04 How to design and conduct a qualitative content analysis in a qualitative study or a systematic review is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, spring 2025.

Criteria for participation: 7University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation: Students are accepted on the course based on project abstracts. Therefore, when signing up for the course, the applicant submits a 1-page document with 1) Name, background, affiliations, and 2) Short description of the project (abstract).

Aim: 
The aim is to introduce to the conduct of a qualitative content analysis, and enable the participants to design and plan a qualitative content analysis. The participants will be able to apply qualitative content analysis, to make consistent and well-informed analytical choices, and to reflect on relevant methodological issues related to their study design and plan of conduct.

The course is relevant both for students who are planning to conduct a qualitative study or literature review, and for students who will use the qualitative content analysis to analyze their conducted material (e.g., interviews, field notes, transcripts, documents, articles).

Learning outcomes: 

• Knowledge on the background, theoretical foundation and the potential of content analysis.
• Describe the main steps in conducting a qualitative content analysis.
• Design a plan for using qualitative content analysis in your own study, including: formulate specific research questions, specify the plan of conduct including the analytical steps to be performed in your study, and discuss own and co-participants’ choices and considerations focusing on the validity and reliability of the analysis.
• Apply strategies to strengthen the quality of studies using qualitative content analysis, focusing on validity, reliability, transparency, and transferability in conducting and presenting a qualitative content analysis.
• Discuss methodological issues in qualitative content analysis, including methodological reflections in relation to own project designs and plans for analyzing own data material.

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 70 hours

Content: This hands-on course introduces participants to qualitative content analysis, and how to design the study and analyze empirical material in health, humanistic, and social science studies. The course enables participants to design and develop a plan for using qualitative content analysis in their own studies.
The analytical strategy presented at the course serve as a guidance to analyze different types of data material, e.g., qualitative interviews, field notes, documents or articles.
The course enables the participants to design and develop a plan for using qualitative content analysis in their own study, focusing on how to strengthen validity, reliability, transparency and transferability in conducting and presenting a qualitative content analysis. The participants are trained to reflect, argue and discuss their own project design and plan for analysis, e.g., how to handle methodological challenges.

The hands-on course consists of four consecutive days and includes lectures, individual project reflection and planning, as well as group discussions. Each day follows the same structure: morning lectures, lunch at midday, and individual project work, and/or group discussions in the afternoon. Each day ends with individual consultation, where participants are invited to assign for a 20 min. consultation with one of the course instructors, to discuss their opportunities and challenges related to their study design and analyses. During the course, the participants will further develop and design their own studies, by drawing on knowledge obtained from the course literature, the morning lectures and group discussions.

Prior to course day 1:
Participants are assigned in groups prior to course to become familiar with each other’s professional backgrounds and PhD projects.
Each participant can assign for a 20 min. individual consultation with one of the instructors, in the one-hour consultation at the end of each course day.

Instructors: 
Cecilie Nørby Lyhne, Associate Professor, PhD, MSc in Public Health,

Jens Thisted, Emeritus VIP, mag.art,

Merete Bjerrum, Associate Professor, PhD, MA

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 19 May 2025 09:00 - 16:00
• 20 May 2025 09:00 - 16:00
• 22 May 2025 09:00 - 16:00
• 23 May 2025 09:00 - 16:00