Install and open
Get the current stable release from the official releases page. Check its platform notes before installing; a beta may also appear above the stable release.
Official releases ↗INDEPENDENT LEARNING GUIDE · FREE SOFTWARE
Make sense of your qualitative data.
A practical home for people learning and using QualCoder: from your first coded interview to a defensible analysis of a complex project.
QualCoder.net is an independent educational resource, not the official QualCoder project.
TEXTIMAGESAUDIO + VIDEOMEMOSCASESREPORTS
01 / GET ORIENTED
Start small. Code deliberately.
CAQDAS means computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. QualCoder helps organize and retrieve evidence; your research question and judgment give it meaning.
Make a pilot project
Import one or two short sources. Give files clear names and keep the working project on a local drive. Make a separate backup copy regularly.
Read the documentation ↗Code, memo, revise
Start with a few meaningful codes. Note what each code includes and excludes. Revisit early passages after the codebook changes.
See the workflow ↓02 / THE WORK
A coding workflow you can defend.
Use these as checkpoints, whether you favor reflexive thematic analysis, grounded theory, content analysis, or a mixed approach. Adapt each step to your method.
Define the question
Write the purpose, unit of analysis, sampling boundaries, and your starting assumptions.
Organize sources
Use consistent file names, remove identifiers when appropriate, and record source context.
Read before coding
Write first impressions in a journal. Pilot a small sample before building a large code tree.
Mark the evidence
Code meaningful segments; attach memos explaining ambiguous or consequential choices.
Look for alternatives
Inspect uncoded text, competing readings, overlaps, exceptions, and differences across cases.
Build the account
Use reports and retrieved passages to connect claims back to sources; preserve an audit trail.
Ten habits that save time
Pilot first · keep a reflexive journal · define codes in plain language · distinguish description from interpretation · use cases early · avoid a needlessly deep code tree · inspect uncoded material · seek negative cases · export checkpoints · back up a closed project.
03 / QUALCODER + CHATGPT
Let AI propose. Let the researcher decide.
QualCoder includes AI-assisted features, and ChatGPT can serve as a separate coding helper, critic, and editor. Keep the source material, the model's suggestion, and your final decision distinguishable.
As a coding helper
- Suggest candidate codes for a short, permitted excerpt.
- Draft code definitions with inclusion and exclusion rules.
- Compare two possible ways to code an ambiguous passage.
- Propose questions for a second reading.
As a critic and editor
- Find overlapping or inconsistent definitions.
- Ask where an interpretation outruns its evidence.
- Look for missing or contradictory cases.
- Check whether a theme tells a coherent story.
TRY THIS PROMPT
“Here is my research question, code definition, and a de-identified passage. Offer two plausible coding interpretations, evidence for and against each, and one question I should answer before deciding. Do not make the final coding decision for me.”
Before sending participant material to an AI service, follow your consent, institutional review, confidentiality, and data handling requirements. Document which tool and prompt you used, what it returned, and what you changed.
04 / THE READING DESK
Books beside the codebook.
Three covers shared by Professor Halstead: methods, hands-on practice, and an emerging AI-assisted workflow.
Professor Halstead observes that QualCoder is absent from his copy of Saldaña’s fifth edition; this is his observation, not an independently verified survey of the book.
05 / KEEP LEARNING
Go to the source.
For installation details and software behavior, rely on the project’s own documentation. The older wiki is useful background, but its newer documentation is the main reference for recent versions.
Further reading
Saldaña, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers
Braun & Clarke, Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide
For a broader CAQDAS perspective, compare documentation and training resources for other packages such as MAXQDA, ATLAS.ti, and NVivo.
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
For people doing the thinking behind the coding.
QualCoder.net was created by Professor Tommy Halstead (@ModelSimProfessor) for colleagues at Purdue Global, students at Harvard and GCU, tutoring clients across more than 200 colleges and universities, and diplomats, executives, mediators, negotiators, and arbitrators.
Questions? Write to Tom.Halstead@my.gcu.edu or BahaiHalstead@gmail.com. So much for fooling the bots. ;=)