Software
Having the right software can make your work much easier. Below are programs that have been recommended by Leadership alumni.
Alumni Resources
Word Processing - Explore the alumni's tips and tricks for word processing.
Presentations - Peruse the alumni's comments and a plethora of great resources.
EndNotes - Be sure to check out how people used EndNotes.
Bibliographic Managers
EndNote - This bibliographic manager program is user-friendly as well as powerful. Once you use it you won't be able to imagine a scholarly life without it! If you haven't read them yet, be sure to read the comments of those who love EndNotes and how they used this powerful program.
ProCite - This is another bibliographic manager program that also has good reviews. If you and your friends use the same program, it will be easier to share "libraries" of bibliographic information.
Helpful Tools
Adobe Acrobat - One of the problems in a distance education program like Leadership is being able to share documents without losing any formatting. Adobe Acrobat is a standard way of sharing documents across platforms and programs. If the receiver has the full program, he/she can work in the program. However, if he/she is using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, they can only read it, but all the formatting is kept intact.
CoolEdit - Gunnar has a unique way of using a digital audio program for research.
Gunnar Jørgensen (Cohort 1999)
This is a sound editing software that is so nice to use for transcribing interviews. You can mark a certain portion of the sound file and play and replay instantly on your computer while you write the text file. Can be downloaded from www.syntrillium.com and used for free, at least for a trial period. Is not an expensive software, but very powerful.Inspiration - Mapping, brainstorming, clustering software that can transform your mapped thoughts to a traditional outline form. This tool can be most helpful for all kinds of writing, projects, and organization tasks. Alumni comments.
Marilyn Eggers (Cohort 1994)
Inspiration is a good tool for many purposes and is especially good for visual learners. Graphics are included. It is also easy to move from a may to a traditional outline, and both are very easy to reorganize as needed. Inspiration is a great way to start projects and to think things through.
Research Software
SPSS - Quantitative researchers will need this powerful program.
Elizabeth Watson (Cohort 1996)
I used SPSS for my statistical computations while writing my dissertation.To learn more about NUD*IST and Atlas.ti, read this article:
Christine A. Barry (1998) 'Choosing Qualitative Data Analysis Software: Atlas/ti and Nudist Compared' Sociological Research Online, vol. 3, no. 3.
NUD*IST - Qualitative researchers will often choose to use NUD*IST for data analysis. There may be a stiff learning curve.
Naomi Ludman (Cohort 1994)
My husband used NUD*IST to analyze the interviews for his dissertation. He found it very useful; however, we would only recommend it if you have a lot of data to analyze. He had probably 100 hours or so of interviews to transcribe and analyze, so for him it was worth learning the program.Atlas.ti - Visual Qualitative Research Software
Note: Be sure to check with Andrews University Bookstore before purchasing any major software program. Many times they can give you reduced academic student prices.
Voice Recognition SoftwareThis technology sounds enticing but does not yet deliver the way most desire it to do.
Rita Van Horn (Cohort 1995)
I tried a program that you could speak into the computer and it would type the words. I was not happy with it but I suspect that technology has improved immensely. Part of the problem with that software was it seemed not compatible with lap top computers. The software was guaranteed, so I got to send it back. I was very happy for that guarantee.Ginna Wenger (Cohort 1997)
I thought that one of those voice-recognition software programs might be a time saver for me. I know there were others considering this technology also. So I'll share my experience: After investing in two of them, I would not recommend them as an answer to anyone considering using that technology, especially for dissertation word processing, unless there have been some major strides made in perfecting this technology over the last couple of years. It was a major frustration and an enormous waste of money and then time, trying the train the thing to interpret my voice correctly (which it would only do intermittently, and then usually only the times that in my frustration I muttered something not very nice). Some of the things it typed for me were so funny that I would laugh till tears ran down my face, but usually my tears were tears of frustration. As you know, when you're trying desperately to work your way through this program, meet deadlines, plus conduct that whole other life as a Mom, teacher, etc.,etc. on the side, it's sometimes hard to appreciate the humor in anything that eats up your precious hours. So there you have my true confessions of a technophobe.
Database
Use a database to keep track of research items and portfolio documents as well. You will be able to find things quickly whenever you need them. Setting one up right at the beginning can keep you from losing things...including your sanity during the wee hours of the morning!
David Heise (Cohort 1998)
Second, you have a database (that is exhaustive and searchable) of all the authorities you have quoted. I have named one of the user-defined fields 'Competencies' and whenever I add a reference, I enter the competencies it relates to (e.g., 1(a); 2(c)) Then when I am writing the annotated bibliography or reflective summary or whatever, I can easily pull up all the relevant references.Gunnar Jørgensen (Cohort 1999)
The most important technique that I have used is in fact Clarion Enterprise Edition version 5.5 which enables me to create a database application that can be put on the Internet. Of course, to use this requires that you are able to do some programming, but for me it was a great help when collecting my data. I used it to collect almost 400 responses to the Norwegian version of Temperament Inventory in order to do factor analysis and standardize this inventory for Norway. (I also collected almost 600 on paper). The advantage with this is that it takes much less work - once you have the application running on the Internet - and you don't have to type in all the responses from sheets of paper. I solicited volunteers to participate in the project, but I could easily have made the application to run only based on certain passwords if I had a random sample and only would let those that had been selected for the project to get into the program.Marilyn Eggers (1994)
I used a database to help me organize my qualitative dissertation documents. For each case study notebook (I had six) I had a database to keep track of every item for that particular case study and to create an index for each case study notebook. I could always quickly and easily find whatever I needed.Gunnar Jørgensen (Cohort 1999)
LEADwing: A database software that helps me register books, articles, stories, sound files... whatever and assign unlimited key words to each record. To each key word you may type in a comment or a quotation or whatever. May also be used to register and categorize qualitative interviews or artifacts. Having registered books, articles, interviews or ... you may export a bibliography on selected items. You may also make advanced searches on any keyword. You may also create a project of selected articles, books, or interviews and conduct advanced qualitative analysis, and then export your findings to text files for further analysis using a text editor. I have developed this software and it may be downloaded from www.leadwing.com . AU students get a rebate.
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This page was created by Marilyn R. Eggers, for Andrews University Leadership 2002 Roundtable Conference and was last updated on August 4, 2002.