Evaluation Implementation – 2.01 Access Data Sources
Accessing data sources is the process of making contact with the people, documents, events, etc. that will serve as the sources of data for the evaluation. This process could be as easy looking around the room at a group of program participants, and as difficult as getting permission to review confidential information being stored by another organization. The majority of program evaluation plans will require something in between. For example, if the working group is planning a pre- post- program survey, they may want to consider collecting data online both before and after the respondents are at the program site. This strategy would depend on being able to access the program participants electronically.
If the data collection has involved extra participant time, effort or risk, or even follow-up data collection months or years after their program participation is over, you may need to do some up-front recruiting of participants to provide data for the evaluation. Communicate carefully and honestly about what participants will be asked to do and how you will protect their confidentiality. Consider offering a monetary incentive to assure a strong response rate.
Thinking about how to access the data sources for an evaluation is important because, like everything else in the evaluation plan, context, feasibility, accuracy, credibility, and usefulness have to be considered. If the program takes place in a context, where relatively few of the participants have access to an internet-connected computer at home, an online survey would not be an appropriate choice. However, if the participants do have access to the internet and reliably respond to requests for data, an online survey can be both more feasible (no paper to keep track of) and more accurate (no stray pencil marks or scribbles and minimized opportunity for data entry errors).