I suggest Raven's Eye for analyzing qualitative data. With Raven's Eye you can analyze data in 65 languages. A nice thing about Raven's Eye is that users have free access to manuals and tutorials to guide them during the analytic process. Since it is a online, students can work individually and in teams on any size data set they have. Offers multi-analytic functions. Graphic user interface.

https://ravens-eye.net

Hey Jan,

maybe QCAmap could be useful - they cannot download it but they can upload their projects:

https://www.qcamap.org/

I guess that depends more on the type of qualitative research you're referring too--for example are they interviews or observations or video recordings, etc?

For example, most people analyzing qualitative interviews (N = 20 or fewer) complete their analysis without software (although some use various software packages to transcribe interviews). Mostly people just do this in Word, and color code their interviews. 

NVIVO is a good software tool though, if you really want to use software for qualitative methods. And they provide a free trial. 

http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_free-trial-software.aspx

If you are primarily looking a training purposes, you may not have to face an either-or choice between commercial versus free software.

As Michael noted, NVivo has a free trial, and so do all of the other major software packages. In some cases, there is a limitation on how long you can use the software (e.g., one month with Dedoose) and in other cases, there is a limitation in things like how many codes you can use (e.g., 50 in ATLAS.ti).

For training, one of the major advantages of the commercial programs is that they all have video tutorials and complete manuals, as well as detailed "quick start" guides in most cases. I find this level of support to be very useful for beginners who are just starting to explore these tools.

Try Dedooze

After the first month, which is free, Dedoose costs $12.95 per month (with some discounts if you enroll multiple people -- for example, having 11+ people on a single account reduces the price to $9.95). 

QdaMiner Provalis solution for qualitative/quantitative analysis of qualitative  data

http://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-software/

Edet (Tex t & images) very easy 

http://www.etnologia.uw.edu.pl/etno/dlaStudentow/edet

Hey Jan, have a look at the database at Social Science Software website. You ll find plenty of tools there. http://www.sosciso.de/en/software/datenanalyse/qualitativ/

http://www.sosciso.de/en/software/datenanalyse/qualitativ/

There is a free version of QDA Miner, called QDA Miner Lite:

    http://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-software/freeware/

Wow, thanks so much for all your suggestions! This is actually for a resident who is interviewing

One option for doing things by hand is to use Microsoft Word. If you Google "word qualitative analysis," you will find several tutorials on various ways of using Word.

My own favorite is to set up a two-column table, where every row is a "paragraph" in the data, and one column holds the data while the other has the codes. Here is PowerPoint that shows how do this (especially slides 12-16).

http://www.slideshare.net/jennacondie/working-with-word-for-qualitative-data-analysis

QDA Miner Lite is a free qualitative software perfect for students and allows to perform basic qualitatve tasks. You can download the software from here: http://provalisresearch.com/products/qualitative-data-analysis-software/freeware/

Our software, Quirkos, is not free, but has a one month free trial which might be enough for your students to do a small project. Otherwise, our student licence is $60. However, Quirkos is specifically designed to be easy for new users to learn, and to work with small text-based projects, so might be a good fit in this situation.

www.quirkos.com/get.html

I introduced QDA Miner Lite to my students. It is free, easy to understand and work.

Thanks, everybody, for your answers!  Jan

I have used also ATLAS ti (student version). It has word limitations but if the text are short it is quite easy to use.

I suggest Raven's Eye for analyzing qualitative data. With Raven's Eye you can analyze data in 65 languages. A nice thing about Raven's Eye is that users have free access to manuals and tutorials to guide them during the analytic process. Since it is a online, students can work individually and in teams on any size data set they have. Offers multi-analytic functions. Graphic user interface.

https://ravens-eye.net

Here is a recent review of the top 21 free options.

https://www.predictiveanalyticstoday.com/top-free-qualitative-data-analysis-software/#comments You will see that QDA miner lite is high on the list.

You could use QDA Miner or Atlasti. You might also find a free version of NViVo if you know where to look for.

Jan Hill-Jordan, I am currently using QDA Miner lite. I find it very easy to use, efficient and indeed user friendly as observed by Zeljko Stojanov Maya Daneva

Raven's Eye, as mentioned above, is between USD$40-50 per month. Hardly free. I have used QDA Miner lite in the past (as many of the other contributors have said), and found it useful.

thanks for the answers

Has anyone mentioned Dedoose? (https://www.dedoose.com/) Not free, but cheap. Supports collaborative work. Developed by academics who have spent years (decades) advising other researchers to on how to construct and conduct qualitative and mixed methods research.

Thanks Robert: I am just checking out Dedoose: I have heard of this before, but had never investigated. Your comment caught me on a Saturday morning with time enough to go and actually have a look. Much appreciated.

The person suggesting Raven's Eye seems to have a financial stake as indicated by their user icon, which is the same raven icon used by the company. That person should be completely transparent about attempting to market their product rather than independently "suggesting" the software.

Thanks for the other options, which I will explore!

J. Patrick Williams I agree that the posts about Raven's Eye are dubious indeed. Meanwhile, I may have missed it, but I did not notice any mentions here for RQDA

https://rqda.r-forge.r-project.org/documentation_2.html#manual

Hello!

You can check RQDA. Its free and stable Win10 Version (2.2) can be found here https://onedrive.live.com/?id=41C1EE655922D297%21278&cid=41C1EE655922D297

Instructions and user guides are shown here: https://youtu.be/YdkPkT2GWjY

NK