The class, Digital Tools for Qualitative Research, was very useful for me. Although I might have been able to work my way through the online resources myself, having a dedicated time and place to work on it, and an instructor to walk me through it, was very helpful.
I think I will use the course information in more depth next quarter when I am taking the 966 class, and have more concrete tasks that I need to complete with the different tools we used.
The one thing that would make the course more useful is if we worked in a mac lab. I have a mac and most of my classmates do as well. So when we worked with programs that only run on a PC, it is not as helpful. (Also, the PCs in the classroom lab seemed slow.) Of course, if there really are programs that are great that only work on PC, then it would be worth it to get the software to run Parallels and use it. But right now, I am not sure if the difference between PC and mac alternatives would make it worth it to pay for software to be able to run something like Weft QDA.
In this class, even the simple resources like Zotero and the mind mapping and word cloud sites were very helpful, as general resources not just for qualitative research.
The only other suggestion I would have is if this course were to be more integrated with the 800 class that we are taking now. In the section I am in, the professor does not use any of these tools or even powerpoints in class. It is nice to know that research is really about understanding the theory and process and that the technology is helpful but not able to replace research skills. At the same time, in order for people of my generation to get jobs, we will be expected to know and use these tools and integrate it into our teaching, so it would be nice to see that modeled in a course. (This of course is beyond the scope of what our fabulous 692 teacher can do, though.)
Thanks Lauren for a great class!
