Sunday, May 8, 2011

iRecorder app

Kendra and I conducted a focus group with graduating senior nursing students a couple of weeks ago.  We wanted a qualitative component to assess the BSN program effectiveness.  We used a borrowed digital recorder and I experimented using iRecorder on the iPad (downloaded the free version).  We placed the microphone for the digital recorder in the middle of the tables (there were 17 students who participated).  I had the iPad in front of me at one end of the tables.  The most amazing thing is that iRecorder picked up the conversation with amazing clarity which was much better than the digital recorder!

We discovered that the downside to free version of iRecorder was that we could not share the recording file.  I "broke the bank" and downloaded the $2.99 version of iRecorder, but the app did not recognize the file that was recorded with the free version.  I ended up loaning my iPad to Kendra for a couple of days so that she could complete typing up the transcript. 

The results of the focus group were very helpful.  We plan to repeat the process with every graduating cohort! Next time we will use the purchased version of iRecorder in order to take an advantage of file portability.

If anyone has ideas for the recording/transcribing process - please share.

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