If the information you collected through your survey is qualitative-data heavy, then you landed on the right page! Qualitative survey question types — such as free text and short answer — can help you gain a lot of interesting information. However, it is important to think about the structure of your questions and how you will analyze the information in order to see patterns in the responses.
Qualitative data analysis refers to analyzing the data through words in order to compare, contrast, and observe trends in the data.
Qualitative data analysis, or QDA, provides additional insight into the larger population by analyzing the survey responses of the smaller sample. In addition, QDA is an excellent way to supplement numerical analysis with additional, descriptive details. However, QDA can take more time to gather and sift through, so keep in mind the survey length as you put together your questions.
Similar to Summary Analysis and Statistical Analysis, many online analytical tools can be used for qualitative data analysis. After analyzing the information, it’s time for the next fun stage: Data Presentation.
The Benefit of Multiple Choice Questions
When your qualitative data comes from multiple-choice selections, you can use statistical tools to review your data. Otherwise, you will need to use a different set of methods to glean information from narrative answers. The Resources page has additional options for analyzing qualitative data.
