Searching for Keywords

You can search for Clips and Episodes that contain specific Keywords in Transana. Searching for Keywords is useful when you want to look for evidence to support a certain hypothesis (especially when you have large amounts of video data). In the Database tree, the names of searches appear in reverse chronological order under the Search node. This lets you keep track of what you've searched for and what you've found when searching. You can save the results of a search as a Collection.

Activity: You can download the video Demo.mpg (available on the Downloads page on the Transana website (http://www.transana.org) and store it on your hard drive in a location where you will be able to find it such as C:\Program Files\Transana 2\Sample\Demo.mpg if you are using Windows or in HOME/Movies/Sample/Demo.mpg if you are using Macintosh OS/X.

The sample video shows a second-grade class learning geometry through a quilt design and construction activity.

In the Database tree, right-click the Search node in the Data window.
In the pop-up menu, select Search (Transana opens the Boolean Keyword Search dialog box).

keywordsearch

In the field labeled Search Name, type "Symmetry."
In the list of keywords for the dialog box, select "Symmetry." (You might have to scroll down to see this keyword.)
Click "Add Keywords to Query."
Click "Search" to begin searching.

Note:
Transana will find one episode and six clips that have the Keyword "Symmetry" assigned to them. It shows you the result of the search under "Symmetry" in the Search node. The search name appears under the Search node with an icon of a magnifying glass next to it.

demosearch

Note:
The Series/Episode and Collection/Clip structure you have set up are preserved in the search results. This search returns a small set of results.

The next activity uses Boolean operators.

Activity: To perform a second search using the keywords "Symmetry" and "Confusion," do the following:

In the Database tree, right-click the Search node in the Data window.
In the pop-up menu, select Search (Transana opens the Boolean Keyword Search dialog box).
In the field labeled Search Name, type "Symmetry" and "Confusion."
In the dialog box, select "Symmetry" from the list of keywords.
Click "Add Keywords to Query."
In the dialog box, click the "AND" button under the label "Operators."
In the dialog box, select "Confusion" from the list of keywords. (Add it to your Search.)
Click "Search" to begin searching.

Transana displays the results of your search in the Database tree.

demosearch2

This search produced four clips, which you can review by right-clicking the Symmetry Collection under the Search Result node and selecting "Play All Clips."

In one clip, a student talks about the carpet being symmetrical if it's all gray.
In the second, a student suggests that symmetry may have something to do with houses.
In the third, the class discusses symmetry as meaning things that are the same.
In the fourth, the teacher is asking about how students will know if they can always create symmetrical two-by-two designs.

Note:
The clip "Proof" in this instance is a false positive result. In this clip, the students are clear about the concept of symmetry but are expressing confusion about the broader implication of their initial finding that they can always create symmetrical two-by-two designs. Let's drop it from your Search Result (but not from its Collection) by right-clicking the clip in the search result and selecting "Drop for Search Result" from the pop-up menu.

demosearch3