Subject: plan for coding flu interviews
From: Julie Downs <[email-masked]>
To: Mandy Holbrook <[email-masked]>, Dianne Palladino <[email-masked]>,Wändi Bruine de Bruin <[email-masked]>, Liz Casman <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:28:42 -0400

Hi all,

We're getting close to ready to start working on the flu interviews.  
We will aim to start this process in early September, to give Dianne a  
chance to finish the bullying coding first (so that her head does not  
explode by trying to code two separate projects simultaneously).

We'll start by having Dianne and Mandy meet with Liz in September so  
that Liz can go over the model. Dianne will be in charge of creating  
working definitions, and creating an access database like the bullying  
one for coding. Liz has some annotations in the model that may help  
with the definitions. Beyond that, Dianne, Mandy and Liz can decide  
together on definitions, and can consult Wändi and me as needed.

Once the definitions are set and the database is ready, Dianne and  
Mandy will start the training coding. The plan is to code all the  
*explanations* given in the interviews (which will be broken down line  
by line), but not to code the general short answers, which should all  
be in the existing database. Mandy will explain what's currently in  
the short-answer database, so that both coders know what needs to get  
coded according to the expert model. We will follow the same general  
procedures as in the bullying project: aiming to code the links that  
are in the model, but free to code others if they come up.

During the training interviews, Mandy and Dianne will send periodic  
emails to Wändi, Liz, and me for clarification on coding or any other  
questions that arise. We can meet any time it is warranted, although  
given the difficulty of scheduling us all at the same time it's  
possible that email will be easiest. Once reliability is sufficiently  
high (preferably >80%), we will break up the remaining interviews  
between the two coders. If it's going fast enough, both will code all  
40 interviews. But we could just do a subset for reliability, if they  
are taking too long.

Liz will determine a meeting based on your availability in the  
calendar that you both submitted. Wändi and I won't be there, but will  
be available if necessary.

OK? If this is unclear or overwhelming, we can chat about it.

Julie