Academic Consulting

We've been making a few changes to our training programme. These include the introduction of a range of new courses, and also an upgrade of our online course booking system.

To celebrate, we're offering a 10% discount off all course enrolments (submitted prior to Monday 9th April). Please note that places will fill up fast – get in while you can.

New training courses include:

• Advanced NVivo
• Edible Statistics
• Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
• Programme Evaluation: An Introduction
• Structural Equation Modelling: An Applied Approach
• Applying Sampling Procedures
• Significance of Group Differences: Introduction to ANOVA and MANOVA
• Exploring Relationships: Correlation and Regression
• Questionnaire Design and Development
• SPSS Introduction: Core Skills
• Using Microsoft Excel for Research

Note that not all of the above have dates scheduled at present, but if you're particularly interested in a course contact us to advise us and we'll look towards scheduling one. We're also happy to discuss offering any of the above within your research organisation.

Two articles written by Academic Consulting have been recently published on the QSR International Forum as part of their Tips and Techniques section. Using NVivo for Literature Reviews and Rebuilding Christchurch: Tips from Two Large Scale NVivo Server Projects are available online for viewing.

If you are interested in using NVivo for your literature review, please note that we offer a 3 hour workshop on this. Details for this workshop can be found at: http://www.academic-consulting.co.nz/training-courses/qualitative-research-and-software.

To kick start 2012, we are offering researchers a 15% discount off transcription work (for a limited period). All you need to do is send your recordings to us between the 14th February and the 31st of March, 2012.

This means that a 1 hour recording (intelligent verbatim level) will cost $137 + GST, instead of the regular price of $162 + GST. This is a great opportunity for researchers who completed interviews at the end of last year to get the ball rolling and get your data ready for coding and analysis. 

If you would like to take advantage of this special price, please email Donna Watson This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with details of your transcription work, and put "Book me in!" in the subject line. Please note, that as we are expecting to be swamped with recordings, this discount only applies to the first 10 hours of recording (per client).

2011 has been a busy year for Academic Consulting thus far, with our involvement in two large-scale public submission projects – both related to the planning and rebuilding process following the Christchurch earthquakes.

The first project saw us collaborating with Christchurch City Council, assisting them in analysing the public submissions they received as part of their 'Share an Idea' campaign (http://www.shareanidea.co.nz). Over 100,000 ideas were submitted via a range of formats – from formal written submissions through to voicemail messages, ideas jotted on post-it notes, Lego models and video clips (visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK5AoTXjN34 to watch a sample of the videos submitted by the children of Christchurch). Data was collated by Christchurch City Council and sent up to the team at Academic Consulting, where it was analysed with the assistance of NVivo 9 Server (a version of the software that allows multiple users to work on one project at the same time). This involved entering and coding each of the submissions at various themes which had been identified by Council staff. Data was sent back down to the Council team at the end of each day, and the information was used to inform the draft City Centre Plan (http://www.centralcityplan.org.nz/net/what-is-in-the-plan.aspx). This project was a good example of the capabilities of NVivo, and was recently discussed in the QSR International newsletter (http://www.qsrinternational.com/news_whats-new_detail.aspx?view=443). In addition, it was an excellent opportunity for staff at Academic Consulting to extend their skills in working with data across a range of formats, namely in the analysis of audio and video submissions. We also valued the collaborative relationship developed with the Council, an important element of the success of the project particularly in light of the tight timeframes involved.

While the Christchurch City Council project focused specifically on the rebuild of the CBD, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) was responsible for developing a wider recovery strategy for the region (http://cera.govt.nz/recovery-strategy). Public submissions were once again sought, and thousands of responses received. As well as analysing the submissions with the aid of NVivo 9 Server, Academic Consulting was responsible for writing a series of three reports for CERA, two of which are available on their website.

Overall, both projects presented interesting and diverse challenges – and, as a company, Academic Consulting valued the opportunity to be involved in research with clear links to the development of important and evolving local and central Government policy.