Facilities and equipment

We have a wide range of facilities and equipment available for staff and students to use to support qualitative data collection and analysis.

DH teaching

DH1.46 Meeting Room

The meeting room seats up to 8 people around a central table. There is a large screen on one wall for displaying video data or other visual material. The screen has connections to a PC set up on a separate desk in the corner of the room and for a laptop to be connected. This makes it a useful space for small group teaching, planning meetings, discussions and informal presentations.

DH1.46 has a specially designed speaker system to optimise the playback quality of spoken interaction. Additionally there are 6 headphone ports arranged around the edge of the room to permit up to 6 users to listen to the same source material through headphones at the same time. This makes it a brilliant venue for small data sessions and collaborative analysis meetings.

During term time, DH1.46 is regularly used for weekly DRT meetings and for BSc and MSc project supervision meetings. Ad hoc data sessions are also held there on occasions. Staff have been known to use it as a quiet refuge for when they are marking work and students can reserve the room as a place to work with a large table on which to spread out lots of papers and materials.

DH1.47 Analysis Lab

The analysis lab is right next door to the meeting room. It is sometimes used as a break out room for practical exercises during training sessions. There is space for 5 people to work in the analysis lab at any one time. The Lab contains three PC computers and one Mac computer. Both staff and students can book time on these computers for conducting individual or group analysis. They are particularly useful for editing digital audio and video data. The lab is also useful as temporary office space for research staff working on QRL / DRT research projects.

Dictaphone

A good number of small digital dictaphones can be borrowed. These are ideal for audio recording interviews, audio diaries, dictated notes or other two-party interactions.

Dictaphone

Microcone

We have a multi channel microphone suitable for audio recording focus groups, World Café discussions, or meetings. For more details check out the manufacturers website here 

 Microcone

Boundary Mics

These smalls discs are an extremely effective way of boosting the range of a dictaphone. They are useful for recording multi-party interaction or to pick up a whole room.

 Boundary Mics

Still Cameras

We have a few digital cameras available for use. They are perfect for capturing exhibitions, community action projects, ethnographic observations and lots more.

Still Camera

Camcorders

Bloggie Mobile Camcorder - small and simple to use. These little cameras are great for videoing focus groups, lab-based observations, video diaries and a whole host of other environments.
Sony HD Camcorders – These high-quality cameras are perfect for recording naturalistic observations where you need a larger hard drive to store data than the Bloggies for greater image resolution.

Camcorders  

MUVI Lapel Cameras

Very small and very discreet. These tiny little, voice-activated digital cameras are great for first-person digital ethnography projects, photovoice studies, or naturalistic observations on the move.

MUVI Lapel Cameras

Sunglasses Camera

Totally spy-movie. Like the lapel cameras these are ideal for first-person digital ethnography projects or naturalistic observations in mobile situations.

Sunglasses Camera

We have a range of dedicated software installed on computers in DH1.46 but we have also compiled a list of freely available software recommendations that you could install on your own computer free of charge / cheaply.

Available in (or planned for) the QRL Analysis Lab:

  • Adobe Creative Suite 6
  • NVivo 10 (PC only)
  • Transana
  • Prism Video Converter
  • ExpressScribe
  • ComicLife
  • LiteCam
  • Audacity
  • Elan

Suggestions for when analysing at home:

(Please note the QRF takes no responsibility for any third-party software that you download from the internet)

If you have any suggestions for software not on our list please contact Dr Alexandra Kent (a.kent@keele.ac.uk) to get it added here.

If you’d like to write a review of some software you used in your own research, we’d love to hear from you and will feature it here on our website. We are particularly keen for students to write reviews of software they found helpful when conducting their first qualitative project.