NEON Access Academy Training – Introduction to evaluation for widening access and success practitioners

Access Academy Training

In order to ensure both outreach and student success events can be effectively evaluated it is vital that all practitioners understand the methods we employ, not just those with responsibility for evaluation. This enables us to provide evidence that they work, or establish why they have not worked, and improve interventions for future cohorts.

This one-day – online – course has been designed to give staff who are new to evaluation roles, or for whom evaluation is not their main role, or an overview of the issues surrounding effective practice, and a basic understanding of the methods employed. By the end of this course delegates will understand:

• How to embed evaluation into the design, planning and delivery of outreach activities
• What is a theory of change, how they feed into the evaluation process, how to use them and why they are needed
• What are the common survey tools and questionnaires and when should they be used
• What are the differences between quantitative and qualitative methods and their advantages and disadvantages
• How to disseminate evaluation findings and use impact data (including tracker data)
• The importance of data quality and consistency when collecting, analysing and reporting on your activities and student participants.

Facilitated by:

Dr. Hannah Merry
Head of Higher Horizons Operations
Higher Horizons Uni Connect