Reflections on developing an evaluation and communications strategy for the ROER4D project

Sukaina Walji and Sarah Goodier
ROER4D Communications and Evaluation Advisors
Presentation for DECI-2 workshop
Cape Town, 4 May 2016
http://www.slideshare.net/roer4d
Reflections on developing an evaluation and
communications strategy for the ROER4D project

Overview
Introduce the ROER4D project
Developing the ROER4D evaluation and communications
strategies (supporting/enabling project objectives)
New and renewed insights
What worked and what could be improved

in the Global
South
 In what ways, for whom and
under what circumstances can
the adoption of OER address
the increasing demand for
accessible, relevant, high-
quality and affordable
education and what is its impact
in the Global South?
Research on Open Educational Resources for
Development (ROER4D)

1. Build an empirical knowledge base on the use
and impact of OER in education
2. Develop the capacity of OER researchers
3. Build a network of OER scholars
4. Communicate research to inform education
policy and practice
5. Curate and disseminate output as open
content
ROER4D Project Objectives

policy and practice
content
ROER4D Key Evaluation Areas
EVALUATION

policy and practice
content
EVALUATION
Evaluation
focused on
the Network
Hub activity;
Using a UFE
framework

policy and practice
content
EVALUATION
Evaluation
focused on
the Network
Hub activity;
Using a UFE
framework
PIUs are
members of
the Network
Hub team

policy and practice
content
EVALUATION
Evaluation
focused on
the Network
Hub activity;
Using a UFE
framework
PIUs are
members of
the Network
Hub team
Iterative
engagement

Evaluation plan summary: 2. Develop the capacity of OER researchers

- Evaluation data showed that the initial series of webinars (run in 2014)
experienced varying degrees of success:
- As this was run as a series, decreasing attendance was an issue
- Several barriers to attendance (e.g. timezones)
- Researchers found supporting materials and recordings available helpful for
review purposes
- Changes in timing and number of sessions implemented in 2015 webinars
Examples of supporting and enabling project direction

Evaluation plan summary: 3. Build a network of OER scholars

- Tracking the project PI’s network growth over time has fed into strategic decisions
in terms of conference attendance discussions
- View video visualisation of PI’s network growth:
- https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0muHoEPL1hXU3dKbWdsWjFsVkU

Evaluation plan summary: 5. Curate and disseminate output as open content

5. Curate and disseminate output as open content
- This work is ongoing as the curation and dissemination strategy is finalised
- Iterative discussions have helped and continue to help shape the project curation
strategy

Evaluationplansummary:4.Communicateresearchto
informeducationpolicyandpractice

4. Communicate research to inform education policy and practice
- Communication and evaluation have worked closely together, partly because of
the DECI mentoring processes as well as the structure of the project Network Hub
team.
- Tracking (near) real-time analytics on a regular basis has helped to shape the
project direction in terms of which communications platforms are working
- Sukaina will talk more about how she has found the impact of UFE on her work

Developing a communications strategy
http://evaluationandcommunicationinpractice.net/resources-publications/resources-to-get-you-started-in-research-
communication

Developing the communications strategy
Developing a communications strategy with DECI-2 team at Feb 2014 workshop

Defining purposes, objectives, methods and media
Purpose
Media

Four key purposes for ROER4D Communications
1. Visibility for project
2. Knowledge generation
3. Networking
4. Research capacity development
These have informed our
communications activities

Specific objectives that support the purposes
Visibility for project
• To establish ROER4D as a significant OER Research project
• To establish credibility and receptivity with OER researchers and policy makers
• To engage those in the educational field to expand reach of project
Knowledge generation
• To share our research process openly with internal researchers in the ROER4D
network and external OER researchers, to contribute to the field of ‘open research’
• To share and communicate research findings that relate to use, adoption and
impact of OER in Global South to the extent that ROER4D becomes a “reference
point” in the OER field
Networking
• To build links among researchers within the ROER4D network
Research capacity development
• To share resources with ROER4D researchers
• To support and build research skills of researchers in ROER4D network
Communications strategy:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Om_oexqrUxzNz0imwLip6z3RDwIWU0R63L5iQgxIHgg/edi

Project
events
Resources
SlideShare
Blog Twitter
Facebook Page
Content
management
system
Website
Email
Virtual meetings
Internal communications External communications
Conferences
Open
repositories
External
press/newsletter
s
Email
announcement
Newsletter
ROER4D Communications channels

✓✓
✓
✓
✓
✓ ✓
✓ ✓
Ongoing
iteration
around
audience
engagement
Communications strategy iteration

• 1. Government/policy makers
• 2. Teachers/educators
• 3. Institutions (HEI, Schools)
• 4. OER community
• 5. Global researchers
• 6. Funders
• 7. Development community
• 8. Others (specific interest/discipline)
• Textbook publishers
• Open data community
• MOOC providers
• Language practitioners
• etc
ROER4D Key Audiences
More granular and
specific audiences
emerging
Audience analysis ongoing

Examples of communicating via conferences
Cheryl at UCT
research
seminar March
2016
Sukaina at ICDE
Conference 2015
Thomas, Sarah and
Cheryl at AVU
conference 2015

Examples of sharing research process outputs

Tweets per week
 Average: 7.75 tweets per week
Data downloaded from Twitter Analytics; analysis conducted in Excel: grouped
individual tweets into tweets per week
Monitor and evaluate

 “How can we measure/track this?” “That’s a good measure!”
 Wanting & asking for evidence
[collaborative ]
 Evaluation feeding into strategic planning sessions – what have
we found? How can this help us improve?
 Evaluation has become part of the project’s process in many ways
Data-driven decision-making!
Some insights & examples of evaluative thinking
in ROER4D team

Reflections on the ResComm process
 Developing a strategy not a linear but iterative methodology.
 Steps provided useful scaffolding for activities.
 UFE thinking influenced ResComm approach: design based, data driven, user-
focussed audiences. Various interventions to ascertain audiences (e.g. interview
with Adoption studies researchers Date, 2014; proposal analysis Date, 2015) to
come up with revised and more granular key audiences
 Agile, experimental approach is enabled by UFE thinking. Stages followed 4 step
process: Planning, Action, Iteration, Reflection cycle (the 12 DECI-2 steps
come under these with some more or less important).
 Open Research approach has influenced an “open communications” strategy –
lends itself to agility and iteration.
 Design becomes fluid and “in-practice” as well as what is practically feasible.
Communications a perpetual beta!
Reflections on DECI-2 mentoring and ResComm
process: on the methodology and process

What are the new or renewed insights & ways of thinking in communication that you
have/are witnessing within your team?
Reflections on impact on the team
 Scaffolded process and methodology helps inform others as to the how and the
what is happening in communications function
 Decisions have tended to evolve as a result of reflecting together (importance of
team meetings)
 Understanding of why the process is as it is: encourage broader communications
within team and from sub-projects (SPs are getting more involved and using
ROER4D channels)
Reflections on DECI-2 mentoring and ResComm
process: on the team and sub-projects

What was provided
 Face to face sessions vital (Feb 2014 in Cape Town; April 2015 at Banff)
 2-3 monthly Skype sessions to update on progress.
 Virtual support (live and via email) for development of specific objectives, mainly
RR and DB.
What worked
 Pacing and timing worked well; supportive without being onerous
 Interactions contributed to developing the Communications planning: intellectual
contribution to our project’s communications.
 Motivating and added a layer of oversight.
What worked: the mentoring process

What could be improved
 Clarity of expectations of what to expect was opaque in the beginning and we
found out/made our own??
 VeriComm template and integrated approach was confusing as not sure what we
were meant to do with it – spent time on trying to make it work but not immediately
useful for us in our context (with 2 separate roles)
 Concerned about time and resources in engagement with a process we weren’t
sure would be contextually appropriate
 Sometimes Zimbabwean and Kenyan based mentors couldn’t join for logistical
reasons – not sure who we had to keep informed so generally we opted for
everyone 
What could be improved: the mentoring process

What worked:
 Great to have experienced evaluators to discuss the evaluation work with
and bounce ideas and strategies off of
 Learnt a lot about UFE; great to scaffold evaluation activities on.
 Regular check-in were helpful
What didn’t work (at least some of the time):
 Primarily online interactions (only have met face to face once as I started
as evaluator in Sep 2014 – 2nd evaluator on ROER4D) were sometimes
tricky
 Integrating the DECI templates into the ROER4D process was often extra
What could change:
 Clarity of expectations – wasn’t always clear
Thoughts on DECI mentoring process for
evaluation

 Funder foresight to mandate this
 Supportive PI and Project Manager
 Team that treats Communications and Evaluation as important part of core
work.
 DECI-2 mentoring process
 Our own interests
 Practical integration of ResComm and Evaluation in our team with Sarah doing
M&E as part of her evaluation activities.
Why did it work (still a work in progress)

Evaluation next steps
 Continued engagement with the ROER4D Network Hub team and PIUs as
the evaluation work continues (esp. around curation & dissemination as
the plan becomes more concrete)
 Sharing insights & learnings with the rest of the ROER4D project and
beyond
 Winding down evaluation work leading up to end Dec 2016 (= evaluation
end date)
 Project end date: Feb 2017

 Communications activity continues to meet the project’s objectives
 Continued engagement with the ROER4D Network Hub team and PIUs as the
evaluation work continues (esp. around curation & dissemination as the plan
becomes more concrete)
 Engagement with (selected) sub-projects
 Sharing insights & learnings with the rest of the ROER4D project and beyond
 Knowledge generation purpose and its constituent objectives come to the
fore
 Processes behind the channels adjusted to support the objectives
-review and re-development of website (May 2016)
-early release findings out for comment (July 2016)
-encourage sub-projects to use ROER4D channels to communicate about their
work (e.g working with SP4 assets)
But
 Constraints: resources especially for attending conferences which our data and
feedback shows has been vital for networking, visibility and knowledge generation.
What’s next?

Thank you!
Questions?
Comments?

Links
Website: www.roer4d.org
Contact Authors
sukaina.walji@uct.ac.za
sarah.googier@uct.ac.za
Follow us: http://twitter.com/roer4D
Presentations: www.slideshare.com/roer4D

Acknowledgments & Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License.
Sukaina Walji and Sarah Goodier
Contact:
Sukaina.Walji@uct.ac.za
Sarah.goodier@uct.ac.za

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