Content analysis has been described as a “research technique for the objective, systematic, quantitative description of the manifest content of communication” (Berelson, 1952, p. 519). This definition allows for a variety of textual analyses that typically involves comparing, contrasting, and categorizing a set of data (Schwandt, 1997). Content analysis has been used for the analysis of a variety of data types such as audio, video recordings or transcripts of classroom discussions, interviews, observations, field notes and, more recently, computer mediated communications (Harasim, 1987; Iseke-Barnes, 1996; Levin, Kim, & Riel, 1990; Mason & Romiskowski, 1996; Mowrer, 1996). Content analysis can involve both numeric (quantitative) and interpretive data analyses (qualitative), or combinations of both. Content analysis has been most fruitfully used in going beyond the surface content of the transcripts towards the identification and analysis of latent variables (such as student understanding, higher order learning outcomes etc.). Though this does bring another layer of subjectivity to the process, this is outweighed by the ability of this methodology to make grounded inferences about more fundamental issues that are of greater research interest.
— (very well) written by Koehler, Mishra and Yahya (2007, p.747-748) “THANK YOU!”