Using Qualitative Data to Inform Teaching and for Educational Research

Diane Lam, Ph.D.

Curriculum Fellow in Microbiology and Immunobiology

While assessment scores may tell you whether or not students understand a concept, they may not tell you why. This workshop will concentrate on one type of qualitative data that can begin to answer these "why" questions: verbal data. They may come in the form of interviews, surveys, evaluations, free-response answers, etc. and are always messy. We will discuss how verbal data can be used to uncover phenomena sometimes undetectable by quantitative measures. We will also walk through practical steps for how to quantify qualitative data, making them easier to analyze and interpret.