Teaching Qualitative Research to Doctoral Students Around the World

Teaching qualitative research online to doctoral students from around the world can be a challenge. Though most students are familiar with quantitative studies, historical studies, or even comparative studies, many are not often acquainted with qualitative research. While other courses in the program help students generate problem and purpose statements, formulate a central research question, specify their scope, and frame their study with the appropriate literature, a course is needed to help students focus specifically on their methodology. The hybrid-style of the course that I recently taught creates room for students to come together for a week-long intensive at a global extension site. Here, doctoral students receive hands-on training while working together through an in-class project that requires them to learn how to properly conduct semi-structured interviews, transcribe, code line-by-line using the NVivo software, and even merge NVivo projects and identify emerging theoretical codes. After the face-to-face intensive, students carry out their own mini-projects online, where they clarify the problem, briefly describe relevant literature, justify and explain chosen research methods and procedures, and write-up their findings after analyzing data using NVivo. To further expand upon the process, students are encouraged to present their research at a qualitative research conference