Frequently Asked Questions

How you use what we created.

Decoration image for help using our data analysis software

Help for the usage of our Data Analysis Software

QDAcity [Q'dacity] is a helpful tool for qualitative data analysis. It helps you organize and analyse your documents while being simple to use. Still sometimes questions arise about the workflow and usage of a tool and that's why we want to provide our help.

FAQ

You have a question yourself or feedback so we can further improve QDAcity? We are always looking for feedback so please contact us on info@qdacity.de!

If you are having troubles using QDAcity:

How do I register for QDAcity?

Go to https://qdacity.com and create an account with google or register with email and password. If registered with email and password, wait for the confirmation email and confirm your email address

I'm having trouble signing in. What can I do?

If you are experiencing trouble registering or signing in try the following: sign out of all accounts you use for signing into or registering for QDAcity. If you want to use your google account, sign out of all google accounts on the machine you are using. Clear your browser cache. Try Ctrl + Shift + Del to do so. Try disabling your ad-blocker. QDAcity should work with ad-block plus. There are known issues with using uBlock, though.

Can I use QDAcity for my project/thesis?

We try to keep our production version as stable as possible. However, since our service is still in beta, features can be removed at any time and there is no guarantee that the service will be available longterm. Also, the feature set is limited at the moment. We support input in plain text or uploading RTF and PDF documents. Uploading audio files for automated transcription is already possible.

What is the pricing for using QDAcity?

You can use QDAcity free of charge.

What does offline mean?

Offline indicates the site can't establish a connection to the server. There exists limited offline functionality so you should be able to continue working by adding new codes and applying codes to segments of data. Some functions like adding new data are not supported, and because this feature is still under development, we recommend not using it if possible. It is recommended to wait until a stable internet connection is resumed.

If you are a student learning QDA:

How do I join a course in QDAcity?

After logging in, hit the “Browse courses” button on the right hand side panel. Type “NYT” in the search field and click the found item. Join the current semester of the course, and click on the item to get to the dashboard with all exercises. From now on the course will also show up on your dashboard after you log in.

How do I start an exercise?

On the dashboard for the course you will see all of the exercises. When you click the green button you will get to the coding editor, where you can work on the exercise. When you click on the list item itself, you will get to a dashboard that shows you some statics about your exercise project and in the case of Homework 3,5,7 you can also see the results of our metrics after each of the three weeks where you need to complete parts of it. Be aware that for exercise 3,5,7 the deadline listed here is for coding exercise 3 when all six documents have to be coded, but you do need to finish the first two in week 5, the third and fourth in week 7 (biweekly rhythm) - check the coding exercise slidedeck!

How do I edit an exercise?

There are two types of exercises:

One where you create your own code system and apply your own codes to the data (HW 2,4,6,8). We call this exercise type Codebook Creation,
One where you work with an existing code system (and code book), which you can not modify, but need to apply it to the data. We call this exercise type Codebook Utilization.

The UI in the CodingEditor will be slightly different depending on the exercises. For the “Codebook Creation” exercise, you will have buttons for creating codes, deleting codes, you can rename, color-code, edit the memo, the code book entry etc… For the “Codebook Utilization” exercise those functions will not be available (and not needed).

What are the most important functions of QDAcity?

Create a code (only for Codebook Creation exercises). The code is always created as a child code of the currently selected code, but you can re-arrange the code system by dragging and dropping the codes onto each other (again only for the Codebook Creation exercises). A good hierarchical structure is key to a good code system!
Delete a code (only for Codebook Creation exercises)
Code properties. Here you will find a list of coded instances in the data, and for the Codebook Creation exercises you can also change the color of the code and edit the codebook entry. The codebook entry can also be viewed here for all exercises.
Get a list of all coded text segments. This only works for coded text data. If you code the PDFs with area codings (rectangles over the text) no previews will show up here.
Apply the currently highlighted code to the currently selected text or area (this is called coding, and you are creating a coding - an instance of the code in the data). Next to it you find the button for removing the currently selected coding from the currently selected piece of data (not all codes, just the one selected).
Search/filter the code system. This is very useful for large codesystems. None of the codesystems in the course will likely be large (unless you go crazy in creating a very large code system in the structured analysis). You’ll likely work with codesystems where you can navigate through it easily, but real life code systems can (they often don't have to) exceed 150 codes.

You are curious about QDAcity now?

Create your free account today, or explore our coding editor demo with no registration required.

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What can you do with QDAcity?

QDAcity helps you analyse and organize your data. Our cloud-based browser application is designed to be accessed from anywhere in the world, whenever you want. Working alone or together doesn't matter - QDAcity keeps you covered.