Course Qualitative data analysis: Using NVivo

The course P265/12 Qualitative data analysis: Using NVivo is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, fall 2027.

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

Requirements for participation: Participants must have NVivo installed on their computer. Also, knowledge regarding qualitative research methods is expected.

Aim: The course aims to provide students with the skills necessary to critically use the qualitative software program NVivo and to train the students in using NVivo to organize and analyze different types of qualitative data.

Learning outcomes: Students will learn how NVivo supports the qualitative research process from beginning to end. Having completed this course, the student will be able to use NVivo’s most important functions:

• Create projects.
• Describe units of analysis relevant for the student’s own project.
• Critically identify elements (sources and cases) as a foundation for making queries.
• Create memos, annotations, and links.
• Know how to use NVivo together with bibliographic software such as EndNote and RefWorks.
• Code data in relation to different types of qualitative data analysis techniques.
• Analyze data, visualize data analysis, and make different kinds of queries.
• Be able to explain and visualize the data analysis that the students use in their own PhD projects.
• Know how to build models and make different kinds of graphic presentations and diagrams.

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 58 hours

Content: NVivo is a software program for data analysis, which is useful for organizing and analyzing large quantities of qualitative data. Qualitative data covers a range of different data, such as data from interviews, focus groups, field observations, videos, pictures, journal articles, and web pages. NVivo can be used in different types of research, including data analysis based on, e.g., content analysis, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and taxonomic analysis. Furthermore, it is useful in systematic reviews, e.g., meta-synthesis and mixed methods reviews.

The course will guide the student through NVivo’s systematic approach to a qualitative project and outline how NVivo supports a rigorous, well-documented approach to the entire data-handling process. NVivo's user interface and basic functions are introduced, starting with the logical process of loading data, followed by handling different kinds of data, coding, and various types of data analysis. Finally, the course will teach and train the students on how to use NVivo to present the results of a project.

Instructors: 

• Annesofie Lunde Jensen, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, Public Health, Health, Aarhus University
• Jeanette Finderup, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University
• Louise Engelbrecht Buur, Clinical nurse specialists, Aarhus University Hospital
• Anne Poder, Ph.D. student, Department of Clinical Medicine, Health, Aarhus University
• Anne Wilhøft Kristensen, Clinical nurse specialist, Aarhus University Hospital

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus (other)

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:

• 27 October 2027 10:00 - 16:00
• 03 November 2027 10:00 - 16:00
• 09 November 2027 10:00 - 16:00