coding observation: Values often appear as something immediately required or immediately resulting in consequence instead of reflecting a learning curve; i.e., one strike with plagiarism/improper citations becomes an automatic F in the class

frequently coded: Citing Sources; Annotation; Conventions; Standard; Attendance; Care; Serious/seriously; Tardy/late; Responsibility; Time; Revision; Cooperation/collaboration; Tutoring/disability services; Participation; Format; Anonymity/identity; Honesty/dishonesty; Integrity; “Goals” (coded when it said "goals" but the language expressed values, see Joe's notes); Holidays

June 1, 2021

During my time working in the archive project, I had to develop a regiment for how to systematically and consistently code documents. First semester, I was provided with PDFs of the documents that were just scans, so I was unable to interact with the texts. What I ended up doing was using color coded sticky notes in Preview (Mac) to code instances of practices, values, goals, and beliefs. While this was a quick way to add a code, it meant that I had to go back and count the frequencies of all four types of codes in all of the documents manually. I then took those frequencies and compiled them in an Excel spreadsheet. Once this process was finished, however, it was discovered that other people could not see the color of the sticky notes, and so there was no way to tell what code had been applied to a certain section. Second semester, we switched to using Dedoose.

 

Dedoose is an effective tool, but unfortunately I still could not interact with the text itself. This means that the image has to be highlighted for the application of codes, not the actual words themselves. If a page is crooked, the coding process is tricky. Dedoose is also slightly slow because when you highlight a section, it can take up to 10 seconds for the section to actually highlight. Do not try to apply the code before the section appears as being highlighted, otherwise the code will not apply. When I could highlight a whole section, I did, but when sentences started or began mid-line, I only highlighted the beginning of the sentence or section.

July 1, 2021

Currently, I am in the processing of developing a regiment for coding projects, while also taking into account previous regiments created by former Archive Assistant, Shannon. I was provided sample Syllabi that I could utilize to practice labeling the four following codes: Value, Practice, Goal, and Belief. I use Dedoose to highlight and add comments to the projects. When necessary I will also add memos to the projects if there are any questions or specific reasons as to why I coded a certain portion of text. Highlighting in Dedoose can be somewhat tricky; if you highlight one sentence and want to highlight the following sentence, the following sentence will combine with the previous. Also, with specific documents you can delete a specific code but you cannot remove the highlight.