Leximancer - text analytic software
Welcome to UNE Leximancer Affair. Please see UNE Leximancer Blog for more information on the functionality of Leximancer.
Leximancer is a text analytic software that can be used to analyse the content of large volumes of qualitative textual documents, extract information at super-electronic speeds and display the results visually in a bird’s eye view of the content. The results of the analysis are displayed by means of a conceptual map which summarises the key themes in the data, the concepts in each theme, the co-occurrence of the concepts, the descriptors of each concept as well as the absolute and relative frequencies of the concepts. A summary of the contents of the entire document is also produced at a single click of a button. The software contains a search engine which enables the user to easily navigate the data so as to perform a directed search of the document to explore the conceptual structures in the data. In this way, Leximancer provides a means of conducting conceptual (thematic) analysis as well as relational (semantic) analysis which are both fundamental to effective qualitative data analysis.
Leximancer was acquired by UNE through negotiations between Prof. Ian Hay, Head of the School of Education, and the Sales Manager of Leximancer Pty Ltd. Prof. Hay, who has used earlier versions of Leximancer, believes that this is an opportunity for UNE qualitative researchers to investigate their data more deeply and faster and thereby improve their efficiency and increase their productivity and impact. The deal that Ian negotiated enabled UNE to be given what Leximancer call an All You Can Eat (AYCE) beta licence. The AYCE licence gives UNE users of Leximancer all the rights of a Site Licence. This means that apart from participating in the testing and refinement of the newest Leximancer Version 3.0, UNE researchers are free and indeed encouraged to use Leximancer in their data analysis and publish the results without any restrictions from Leximancer.
In readiness for the acquisition and use of Leximancer, Prof. Ian Hay authorised arrangements to be made for training in Leximancer to be given to staff and postgraduate students, not only from the School of Education but also from across all other Schools of UNE. As a result, I coordinated the training that was delivered in the School of Education on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th October 2007. The training was attended by 53 academic staff 59% of whom are members of the SOE and the others came from other Schools. The training also attracted 5 PhD students. The training would not have been possible without a great amount of assistance and expertise provided by Kevin West, Tony Brown, Don Parsons and Gordon Smith. I should like to take this opportunity to thank these gentlemen publicly.
Following the training, 13 members of staff offered to be active testers of Leximancer. This arrangement gives the testers the chance to investigate the functionality of Leximancer intensely. Any bugs detected will be reported to me for subsequent investigation with a dedicated IT technical person at Leximancer. Each tester will have personal space on the Leximancer server through a personalised Login and Password. Meanwhile, all members of the UNE community are welcome to test-drive Leximancer functionality. You can do so by going to the following Url:
http://rumpus.une.edu.au/leximancer/rest/static/beta.html. This will direct you to a Login window where the Login Code is demo1 and the Password is alpha2. Clicking on the Login button will take you to the main Leximancer interface. From there, just follow the instructions given during the training. If you encounter any problems, do not hesitate to email me a description of the exact problem.
Link to UNE Leximancer Blog
Charles Kivunja
ckivunja@une.edu.au
Lecturer in School Pedagogy
School of Education