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Coding of Open-Ended Text <br />In addition to numeric data associated with "fixed response" survey items, text responses <br />maybe collected during CATI surveys in response to "other," "specify," and "open- <br />ended" prompts. "Other" text responses are generated when coding categories are <br />insufficient to capture a given survey response. For example, standard coding categories <br />for respondent race/ ethnicity may not include an option for "Middle Eastern." <br />"Specify" responses are used to elaborate or add dimension to a quantitative answer. such <br />as asking respondents to specify the website visited after indicating that they used the <br />Internet while visiting the WORK Center. The last category, "open-ended," does not <br />have a numeric basis of any kind. CATI software allows interviewing staff to record <br />verbatim responses for these three types of open-ended questions. <br />In advance of project completion, coding categories are developed by project managers <br />and approved by the director; these proposed coding categories can be circulated to and <br />approved by the appropriate WIB staff. Ci3 software allows up to 30 codes for each <br />answer. Multiple codes are necessary when questions specifically ask for multiple <br />answers such as, "What two or three resources or services used at the WORK Center <br />were most helpful in your employment search?" and are useful in many other <br />circumstances. As additional surveys are completed, the preliminary categories are <br />revisited to ensure that they represent respondents' answers. <br />Using the final coding schema, SSRC researchers will assign numeric codes to the open- <br />ended text responses. These will be merged with the quantitative data to produce a final <br />SPSS (or other fornlat) database for analysis. <br />IS <br />