Assignment: Coding focus groups in NVivo
You are provided with two focus group transcripts from a real research study investigating student wellbeing and attitudes towards health eating. This study used a mixed methods approach and was undertaken to explore in more detail some of the results from questionnaire data. All of the participants in both the questionnaire and focus groups were Middlesex University Students.
Key research themes that were explored in the focus groups:
- What are the key attitudes towards personal diet and health?
- What does it mean to be healthy?
- What is the role played by the university in healthy eating?
- What factors influence food choices amongst MU students?
- Does the university support a healthy lifestyle? What more could it do?
- What are the key opportunities and barriers to a healthy lifestyle amongst university students?
Tasks
You are asked to undertake analyses of these data using the software package NVivo (please ensure that you are using NVivo 11). This means that you have to create a new NVivo Project, add the two focus group projects to this project, code the data and then provide some interpretation of the findings.
For this assignment you are asked to focus on answering two key questions:
- What are the key attitudes of Middlesex University students towards personal diet and health?
- What are the key opportunities and barriers to a healthy lifestyle amongst university students?
Please present the following in your report:
1. A bar chart for each focus group transcript to illustrate how the transcripts have been coded. Accompanying this, please provide a brief explanation of the similarities and differences between the coding of the two transcripts (max. 200 words).
2. Please provide a ‘Concept map' of all of the nodes that you have used within your analysis. Using a maximum of 300 words, please explain which of these codes you found the most analytically interesting and why? (i.e. what did you focus on when performing your selective coding?).
For the following two questions, please use some examples of evidence to support your interpretations (e.g. quotes).
3. Please present a narrative describing what you learned from your analysis to answer the research question (up to 500 words) "What are the key attitudes of Middlesex University students towards personal diet and health?
4. Please present a narrative describing what you learned from your analysis to answer the research question (up to 500 words) "What are the key opportunities and barriers to a healthy lifestyle amongst university students?"