======= Date Modified 26 Oct 2011 16:11:53 =======
Hi All,

At present I have a grand total of 353 free/tree nodes and counting, and I still haven't finished importing all of my data from my Everest attempt of cutting and pasting 44 transcripts!

As my nodes continue to grow, I am starting to question my approach as to how I have decided to structure them. Owing to the complexity of the data, in some instances, I am creating a child node for the same subject area numerous times. If I was to try and illustrate this using tree nodes as an example (apologies in advance if this makes no sense!), it currently looks something like this:

Positive outcomes associated with attending university SINCE enrolment (tree node)
- Increased social network
- Financial (from student loans, topped up by ad hoc part time work, etc).

Negative outcomes associated with attending university SINCE enrolment (tree node)
- Financial (due to loss of guaranteed full time earnings)
- Mental wellbeing

Positive outcomes associated with attending university PRIOR to enrolment (tree node)
- Financial (earnings associated with full time job)
- Confidence (due to being a job they were comfortable with)

As you can see (hopefully) from this really basic example, I am repeating the node 'financial' on several occasions. I'm not sure whether to continue with this approach and use NVIVO as a storage facility per se and to run the tests later, or whether to structure my nodes in a way that I envisage to group and discuss them within my discussion chapter/s? I'm worried if I do the latter I'm going to get confused as to where I've put what, as at least with the former approach I can follow and locate the general themes rather than those more analytical in nature. I'm also worried that the latter will prevent me from seeing my data in new ways. However, as I keep repeating the same node in about 10 different places, I'm slowly getting lost in a pool of nodes!

Does this make any sense or have I babbled on for long enough :-)

Cheers to anyone in advance who is able to offer any advice.

RLD

======= Date Modified 28 Oct 2011 05:37:03 =======
======= Date Modified 28 Oct 2011 05:35:52 =======
======= Date Modified 28 Oct 2011 00:34:46 =======
Hi RLD,

It might be more efficient for you to have tree nodes like this:

Positive outcomes
Negative outcomes
Attending university
- since enrolment
- prior to enrolment
Financial
- student loans
- full time job
Mental Wellbeing
- Social Network
- Confidence

Then when you are coding a passage, you can code it at all the relevant nodes. For example -when you find content about 'positive financial outcomes since enrolment' - you code it at 'positive outcomes' AND 'since enrolment' AND 'financial'.

Then you can use queries to bring the fragments back together - for example, run a Coding Query to find all the content coded at 'postive outcomes' AND 'since enrolment' or all the content coded at 'since enrolment' AND 'financial'. You can put the data back together in all sorts of combinations without drowning in your node pool!

Hope this helps. You are not alone in this dilemma - there is a discussion about structuring nodes on LinkedIn - http://linkd.in/sBZXJF

Cheers
Kath

Hi Kath,

Thank you so much for your response!

I think! (she says dangerously :p) I have a mental picture of how I'm going to structure my million and one codes, so am going to give it a go tomorrow and see how it goes!

If I have any other silly questions would you mind if I came back to you? I'm waiting to get the okay from LinkedIn to access that group you mentioned, so thanks for that too!

Cheers again,
RLD (up)

Hi RLD

Hope your reorganization went well. I'm happy to help out - the QSR forum (http://forums.qsrinternational.com/) is also a good place to go to get help from other NVivo users.

Cheers,
Kath