How to Develop Themes in MAXQDA Using Creative Coding (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: So we have done the first stage of the coding process where you have gone through all the translate develop codes representing the significant information also addressing the research question that you have. Now, the next stage is to develop themes, right? And how are you going to develop themes? Let me show you the PowerPoint in terms of the themes development. So what you're going to do is that you're going to review all the codes under each of the research questions and group them based on their similarities, right? And also considering the significant information that you have extracted, right? The significant information that you have extracted will also help you to see whether there's a connection between the codes and you group them. So you're going to have maybe five or four or six groups. Then you decide what name should I have to give to each of the group, right? And that name will be the theme addressing the research question. I'm going to also show you how to do it. So there's a function called creative coding function in MathsQDA that you can use. You can use to organize your codes. Okay, so we're going to use the creative coding function. So where are you going to find the creative coding? You have to go to codes here and click on creative coding, right? And this is what you're going to see. So this one helps you to group the codes and based on similarities. And then after grouping them, then when you finish everything, it will reflect here, right? And I'm going to show you how it's done, right? So let's start with the first research question. So let me move this one up. So now the first research, but these are the codes that came up, right? So what you're going to do is that you're going to select all of them. Select the first one, press on the last. You are selecting including the container for the research question. You select, bring them here, right? So you have everything here, all the codes here. What you have to do is to examine each of the codes and group them, right? So the first step is to start a grouping. So I've grouped this one together, right? So let's say you want to explore further, right? You want to see the quotations that are within each of the codes container. So that in case you want to review more and find out whether these two are related, you can do that. So you can double click on it and you can see all the quotations and then review them. So if you are satisfied, you just put them aside, right? This, they are group one. And then you go around and see, okay, so, so let's see, we have collaborative governance. Collaborative governance is here. And I see collaborative and participatory governance here too. Yeah, quite similar. And then another one is contextual and field-embedded innovation. And then it goes with community-centered innovation. So community-centered innovation, this one and that one is quite related. And then the next one is accountability and transparency. Accountability and transparency and then anticipatory ethics can be together. Looks like this one can be alone or you can decide it can, you know, based on the characteristics, you can add it to one of them. So it's all about reflecting, thinking about all these possibilities of combining some of the codes and then deciding. So it looks like we have one, two, three, four, five groups, right? Now what we have to do is to give them labels, right? So for the first group, the label that we can give to it, it could be called stewardship and accountability, right? You give a label that can represent both information. So when you decide on a label, that label will be a theme, right? So when you decide on a label, what you have to do is click on new code here and then bring that information, the label for representing the group here. Make sure that you type theme because you want to indicate that this label is a theme. And then you type the label, right? You can also give a description, right? What does this theme mean, right? You can type the description there. You can define it. You can personalize it. When you finish, you can even give it a color if you want to do that. A different color if you want to do that. If you want to add that, you click on okay, right? Then what do you have to do is that you can click on link, define a subcode, right? So you click on that and then you're going to press on this and link it to the code, right? And link it to the code. So you see that I've linked them, right? It's not all that. So if you want to move it, you have to click on a link again, right? And then you can move it. So you can see that I have a link. When you link it, it's also the link between the research question and these codes vanishes, right? So then you have to reconnect the research question to the theme now, because the theme comes under the research question. So you have to do that connection. How do you do that? You go back to the link here, click on that, and then I point the arrow to the theme. So now, and when I finish, I click on the link again so that I can move, right? So now I can move. Now what is happening is that the theme is addressing the research question and the codes are under the theme, the two codes. So you're going to do the same thing for the other ones. So what you're going to do is that for the equity and inclusion is alone. So you can still create a theme for that. You can click on new code and then you bring the theme here. So the theme is equitable access and outcome and click on OK. Then you go back and click. You can make sure that you bring it here and you go back and click on the link and then bring it. You see how the one that is connected to the research question will vanish, right? And now you're going to link this one to the research question to the theme because the theme comes under the research question. And so the code comes under the theme. So you're going to do the same thing for the other ones. So let's do one for this group about collaboration. So the collaboration was collaboration, a collaborative governance and collaborative and participatory governance, right? So you click on new code and bring the theme here that you have decided on and then click on OK. The theme is here. You bring the theme back here and then connect the theme to the code. So if you want to connect, you click on link here and then bring. You see now you're going to connect the research question to the theme. So now about two left, right? So what we have to do is we look for, we create a theme, realize another theme that is focused on conceptual and field embedded innovation and also community centered innovation, right? You're all talking about innovation. So you click on new code, bring the theme here, click on OK, bring the theme. You have to click on a link so that it will not highlight the link, right? Activate the link. You are not activating the links so that you'll be able to move the theme, right? So I moved the theme here and now I'm going to activate the link and then connect them to the codes and then connect the research question to the theme. So that's what you're going to do for the last group, right? So the last group is proactive ethical oversight, right? That will be the theme. So what you're going to do is that you click on, you can deactivate the link for now. You click on new code and then bring the theme, type the theme here. You can define if you want to define. You click on OK and then I bring the theme down here and activate the link and then connect the theme to the code and now I'm going to connect the research question to the theme. So you see here that I have grouped the codes and then developed themes and connected the themes to the code and also connected the research question to the theme, right? So when you are done, right, what you have to do is to go ahead and click here to close or you can click on finish creative coding. So it will prompt you whether you want to go ahead. I click on yes and immediately when you do that, the system rearranged things and all the themes will be back here, right? All the themes will move here and you see that I have my themes for my research question one and under that I have my codes. So you're going to do the same process for research question two and three. If you want to start with the research question two, you go to smart coding again and then what you're going to do is going to bring the research question two, select the first one, you press on shift, select this last and bring them here and do the same thing that I did, right? The same process. And at the end of the day, this is what you're going to see, right? So as you can see here, I have all my themes under the research questions. So the research question two, I have my themes there and when you go to research question, this one is research question three. You see the research question three, I have my themes here and then research question two, I have my themes here, right? I technically have finished my coding process. I have all my themes. So the next stage is to visualize your findings. So you may be using AI to do your research, but a question is what is an ethical way of incorporating AI into your qualitative research? This is what this seminar is all about. It's a two-day seminar. You're going to develop customized tools that will really help you to do your research in an ethical way and also develop the skill of defending the decisions and actions that you have taken in terms of incorporating AI into your research. This is going to happen January 7, 2026 to January 8, 2026. It's two hours on the 7th and also three hours on the 8th. Then you're going to develop a tool called Stress Framework Assistant and also Stress Chatbot that will help you to make informed decisions as you are using AI to do your research. It's also going to generate documentation about how you use AI so that you'll be able to communicate or disclose how you incorporated the AI into your qualitative research. I put a link to this seminar in my description section. You can go there and learn more about it and also if you have any questions concerning this seminar, let me know. You can actually email me so that I'll be able to answer any question that you have. I'm hoping that you're going to be there and you're going to be empowered to develop your own tools that will help you to use AI in an ethical way so that you'll be able to do the research with confidence and defend the actions and decisions that you make. Thank you.