Training Tasters
 
  Decision Explorer Taster Workshop
  This is a navigation exercise so you can understand what a developed map looks like in Decision Explorer. Its purpose is to start to familiarise you with DE's structure and some of its tools. However, only one of the analysis tools-cluster-is described in this 'taster' workshop.

You should first download and read the short paper on the form of cognitive mapping for which Decision Explorer was originally designed.

You should then download the exercises for this 'taster workshop'.

Finally, you should download the Decision Explorer model which is used with the exercises. The file is called: NSFocusGroup. You should copy it into the folder c:\Program Files\Dexplore\Model

If you do not have a copy of Decision Explorer, you can download a demo version from the link on this site The exercises will work on the demo version but you cannot add elements to the model even if you delete an element first.

Have fun!
  Decision Explorer Taster Exercises
  Get Acrobat ReaderThe Training Tasters are in PDF format this requires Adobe Acrobat Reader
  Learning a Package
 
  Using NVIVO for Your Literature Review
  NVIVO has a particular set of tools which is excellent for analysing literature reviews. This example data base was developed by Silvana di Gregorio to illustrate how NVIVO can be used to help in the analysis of literature and in the writing of literature reviews. It is part of a larger real literature review. The subject area may be of some interest to you as it is about qualitative research and computer packages.

You should first read the paper Dr. di Gregorio wrote - Using NVIVO for your Literature Review (404k), paper presented at STRATEGIES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: ISSUES AND RESULTS FROM ANALYSIS USING QSR NVIVO AND NUD*IST, conference at the Institute of Education, London - 29-30 September 2000. It is in pdf format so that you will have to use Adobe Acrobat to read it. (If you do not have Adobe Acrobat you can download it from here - scroll up the page until you find the Adobe Acrobat download button.)

You can explore the literature review database described in the paper. You will have to have a copy of NVIVO. If you do not own a copy of NVIVO you can download a demo disk from www.qsrinternational.com. After you have downloaded the demo disk and installed it, download the winzipped data base (160k). It will unzip automatically when you double-click it (you do not need WinZip). Make sure that you locate the unzipped files under c:\ QSR Projects. (Do not alter or move around the sub-directories as doing that can corrupt the file. Also use copy and paste rather than drag and drop when you are moving the file - drag and drop can corrupt the database.) When you open the project, log on as 'Guest'. Leave the password blank. The database will be in read-only mode. That means that you can play with the literature review yourself, adding your own documents, coding them etc. but none of the changes you make will be saved when you close the project.

Have fun!