Researcher Story
Teaching Higher Education Online
The Researcher
Irene is a doctoral candidate at Walden University, pursuing a PhD in Educational Technology and Design. She is doing her dissertation on the online teaching experiences of community college professors during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Challenge
Irene has done the hard work of getting her dissertation plan approved and conducting in-depth interviews. What she doesn't have is multiple weeks to sit with transcripts, build a codebook, and work through thematic analysis on her own, while also running a business and managing family responsibilities.
Research Question
- What are community college faculty members' perceptions of their teaching experiences working online post-pandemic?
Study Details
- Analysis type Thematic analysis
- Research methods In-depth interview
- Number of interviews 10
- Interview duration 45 minutes
- Participants Community college professors
The Solution
Irene partnered with Qualitative to complete the thematic analysis for her dissertation.
1. Consultation — Irene met with Qualitative to clarify her research question and analysis goals.
2. Proposal — Qualitative put together a thematic analysis proposal and quote tailored to her study and Irene paid the invoice.
3. Analysis — Once her interview recordings were uploaded, Qualitative created accurate transcripts, conducted systematic coding of all interviews, grouped codes into themes, selected representative quotes that matched each theme, and summarized key findings in dissertation-friendly language. Within 6 days, Irene could sign in to the Analysis tab of her Qualitative project and see all codes, final themes with definitions, organized findings, and supporting quotes.
4. Writing — Irene then met with Qualitative to walk through her end-to-end analysis. With the analysis complete and clearly laid out, she wrote Chapters 4 and 5 of her dissertation in 2 days.
The Outcome
By the end of the project, Irene had a complete, defensible thematic analysis and a clear path to graduation — without sacrificing her business or family time.
Qualitative's analysis produced 82 codes, 16 themes, and 123 supporting quotes across 10 interviews. The themes collectively revealed community college professors rapidly adapting their technology skills, course design, and engagement strategies — while relying on institutional support and accommodating diverse student needs — to navigate the personal, pedagogical, and infrastructural challenges of teaching online during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were written in dissertation-ready language, so Irene could immediately translate them into chapters 4 and 5 of her dissertation.
In addition, Qualitative delivered 3 implications for practice and 3 recommendations for research, outlining next steps for strengthening faculty support and collaboration on technology-enhanced, engaging course design, and for studying long-term teaching changes, emerging tools like AI, and effective online engagement strategies.
With the analysis heavy lifting taken care of, Irene was able to focus on interpreting her results, aligning them with the literature, and polishing her final dissertation — ultimately keeping her defense timeline on track.
The Feedback
I liked the support from the developer, Neal, and how efficient everything was. Despite having no experience in conducting research, Qualitative enabled me to complete my study in record time. It was an all-in-one solution for chapters 4 and 5 of my PhD study. It took care of my recruitment and survey and was an excellent software solution. The AI data analysis feature did all the heavy lifting for chapter 4. The initial setup was easy, thanks to the free consultation.
Irene Arshad
Doctoral Researcher
Walden University
See Irene's verified review on G2.com
