I recently facilitated the following session on conducting literature reviews using technology offered to graduate students in our faculty of education. The session was offered both to online learners and students gathered in a room on campus and I am happy to make the video available. By no means am I an expert on literature reviews or using NVivo for them, but I wanted to share what I have learned so far in testing the software for this purpose. I do believe it has great potential for organizing and capturing the sense making process when conducting reviews.
Conducting Literature Reviews with the Help of Technology: A Discussion and Demonstration
Abstract: Part of our role as researchers is reading, making sense, and synthesizing literature in our area of interest. This session will be a chance to share some approaches and challenges to using technology in conducting this important work engaging with knowledge generation. Two approaches to employing technology in the literature review process will be described: a low-tech solution involving the use of a templated spreadsheet for capturing and collating aspects of literature; and a higher-tech solution that involves the use of the NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software or other qualitative analysis tools while conducting literature reviews. While qualitative data analysis tools are most commonly used in the analysis of primary data, they have vast potential in the literature review process for coding and synthesizing texts.
Slides from the session are available here. I also offered a literature synthesis spreadsheet template available here.