This term is used throughout our paper to denote a variation in the programs and methods currently used to process computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDA). As a methodology, CAQDA generally depends upon specific search tools, mapping or networking tools, query tools, and annotation tools, among other software to assist with common data analysis in the fields of psychology, social sciences, and even much market-oriented research. The programs central to these tasks are able to perform often sophisticated data comparisons and other breakdowns from within the research document on the point of compilation. Advances in linguistic programming and digital lexicography have made it possible to extend these capacities to conventional word processing software, allowing writers to analyze diction, semantics, and other linguistic features in a document as the text is being written. Common CATA software includes programs like NowComment (used in our research), CATMA (Computer Aided Textual Markup & Analysis), and Voyant, Nvivo.
Published in Chapter:
Reading and Collaboration: Developing Digital Reading Practices With Computer-Assisted Text Analysis Tools
Andrew Klobucar (New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA) and Megan O'Neill (New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 26
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-5849-2.ch008
Abstract
The introduction of digital media into university writing courses, while leading to innovative ideas on multimedia as a rhetorical enhancement means, has also resulted in profound changes in writing pedagogy at almost all levels of its theory and practice. Because traditional approaches to examining and discussing assigned texts in the classroom were developed to help students analyze different genres of print-based texts, many university educators find these methods prohibitively deficient when applied to digital reading environments. Even strategies in reading and text annotation need to be reconsidered methodologically in order to manage effectively the ongoing shift from print to digital or electronic media formats within first year composition. The current study proposes one of the first and most extensive attempts to analyze fully how students engage with digital modes of reading to demonstrate if and how students may benefit from reading digital texts using computer-assisted text analysis (CATA) software.