A team approach to the use of qualitative methods in a study of high quality out-of-class experiences for undergraduate students at 14 institutions of higher education is described. Four research questions examined: the physical and organizational features characterizing the institutions; the nature of institutional policies related to out-of-class activities; opportunities available for student involvement; and how elements of institutional culture and subcultures influence student involvement. Issues of qualitative research addressed include team composition, data collection, observations, data analysis, establishing trustworthiness and credibility, transferability of findings, and dependability and confirmability. Among conclusions were that multisite qualitative research using multiple investigators is time consuming and expensive, and that the composition of the research team is critical. Such research does work, however, and in this case provided rich and accurate descriptions of individual institutions and factors and conditions across institutions that seem to contribute to high-quality out-of-class experiences. Contains 34 references. (SM)