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.
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.
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.
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).
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/
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).
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.
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.
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.