Although many people know and use NVivo for qualitative analysis of documents, interview or focus group data, they are often unaware that NVivo is a great choice for coding the responses of open-ended questions in survey data.
Survey datasets are analyzed through the Cases function inside NVivo. Once you’ve set up your data in NVivo, analyzing and theming responses becomes much easier. NVivo allows you to explore themes by demographic characteristics (referred to as attributes) and incorporate other data types, such as closed-ended responses from Likert-scale ratings or yes/no questions. By doing so, you can dive deeper into your coded themes, comparing responses across specific groups.
For instance, you may uncover that only individuals from a particular community or income bracket have negative views about a new policy, or that responses to management changes vary by role or profession.
Properly preparing survey data before importing it into NVivo is essential.
Follow these steps for a smooth process:
- Export your survey data as an .xls file from your survey platform.
Ensure columns represent individual survey questions, with clear and meaningful headings (e.g., Q3_Gender or Q5_Improvement Ideas). Use the first column for Participant ID.- Each row should contain all responses from one survey participant, with no overlap or shared data. Each row will correspond to a Case inside NVivo.
- Make certain you do not have any hidden formula-based data transformations (e.g., using a formula to regroup ages into categorized age groups). It is necessary to have static values, as NVivo does not process formulae.
You are ready to import the dataset into NVivo. Open-ended responses will be codable text, while closed-ended answers will serve as Case Attributes.
Tip
For NVivo for Windows, you can immediately start exploring the codes and cases created during import. If you’re using NVivo for Mac, an additional step involving the Autocode Dataset feature is needed to complete the coding process.
With larger survey datasets that include numerous open-ended questions, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data. Honour your respondents’ contributions while managing your workload by leveraging NVivo’s tools to efficiently and effectively code your survey data.
