|
|
|
For the 6th NZSSN Summer Short Course Programme, held in February 2010, course evaluations were completed by all attendees. We also made some additions to the data collected, focusing a bit more on critiquing our organisation and administration.
The feedback overall was as positive as we are used to. Some of the changes we made from last year were well received overall, e.g. use of Trax cafι for morning and afternoon teas; others were not quite so successful, e.g. overflowing in the registration room on the Monday morning. AMENITIES Suggestions for improving the amenities once again identified some issues that are beyond our control. The teaching rooms at the School of Government remain unreliable with regard to temperature control; the computer labs were not so excessively hot this year, but other rooms had reports of great fluctuations between days. We will endeavour to resolve these for the next short courses. Within our control were comments regarding the catering towards provision of fruit at morning teas as well, and easier access to 'water and coffee' at all times. On the first point we have been unsatisfied with the catered fruit at the last two Summer Programmes, from two different providers, and we will look at alternative options for future courses. On the second point, our moving the morning/afternoon tea venue from a teaching room to the cafι actually made access to water/coffee more difficult at other times. We will seek to address this for next time also. ORGANISATION Suggestions for improving the administration and organisation included requests for more prompt feedback on enrolment. We are planning to upgrade our website later this year, which will address this issue. Other information people seemed unclear on, e.g. early finish for courses on Friday, has been covered in the information email in the past, but we will publicise this more widely. We will include content previously available from the course booklet directly on our website to make it easier for people to find the information they need. On the subject of easier to find, there were also requests for more detailed information on venue location and access. Participants have done a good job getting to Railway Building West Wing over the past few years! It is not the easiest place to find, especially as the only marked entrance is hidden from the main entrance to the railway platform area. We will look at improving our description! COURSES Descriptions of the courses and some of the data from the analysis of the course evaluations are presented below. Over the two weeks 819 February 2010, 1 four-day and 9 five-day short courses were held in the Railway Building West Wing, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington. The four-day course was repeated in Auckland 2225 February thanks to SPEaR visiting speaker funding. The online questionnaire about which we informed previous short course attendees and others in our target audience in June 2009 showed a strong majority vote yet again to continue with Wellington as the site for our courses. The following courses were offered this time around. INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS 812 February 2010 An introductory course in statistical methods with an emphasis on statistical techniques applicable to the social sciences, and focusing on concepts rather than mathematical theory. CASE STUDY RESEARCH 812 February 2010 A course exploring the theory and practice of case study as a research approach for understanding and evaluating the complexity and dynamics of innovative programmes and organisations. Designed to be useful for those who wish to commission or conduct case study research to inform policy decisions or professional practice. INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING USING AMOS 812 February 2010 A course designed as an introductory, applied course in the use of SEM using the Amos18 program. SEM is used widely by researchers to find and test complex relationships amongst observed (measured) variables and latent (unobserved) variables and amongst the latent variables themselves. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH TECHNIQUES 812 February 2010 An introductory course consisting of lectures and practical workshops, designed for those with no background in research and no previous experience with qualitative techniques of data collection and analysis. ADVANCED ANALYSIS OF LINKED HEALTH DATA 812 February 2010 An intensive course designed to instruct participants in the theory and practice of analysis of large sets of linked administrative data, especially in the health area, but with applications throughout the social sciences, at an intermediate to advanced level. DATA ANALYSIS IN SPSS 1519 February 2010 This course provides the beginner in quantitative data analysis with the basic requirements for analysis in an SPSS computing environment. It focuses on the analysis of survey, administrative and/or census data. Some basic knowledge of descriptive statistics, Introduction to Statistics, or equivalent experience presumed. INTRODUCTION TO NVIVO 1519 February 2010 An introductory course designed for those familiar with qualitative research approaches who are interested in using NVivo to assist with the tasks of qualitative data analysis. The focus is on learning the NVivo data analysis toolkit through hands on experience. INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAM EVALUATION 1519 February 2010 A course designed for public sector workers and academics who are interested in commissioning, managing or conducting evaluations of public policy or programs. The course is introductory and will be most suitable for those who are commissioning, conducting or teaching program evaluation. INTRODUCTION TO SURVEY DESIGN 1519 February 2010 A course designed to prepare participants to build and conduct research surveys to meet a variety of needs. Topics covered include uses of surveys, constructing survey questions that are clear and unbiased, improving survey reliability, types of samples and sampling, and combining objective and open-ended questioning in order to enhance the usability of results. RESEARCH SYNTHESIS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE 1518 February 2010 (Wellington) & 2225 February 2010 (Auckland) A course aiming to develop awareness and capacity in broad based user driven research synthesis in the research community and also to ensure that a representative group of individuals in policy agencies and NGOs can gain expertise in the use of systematic reviews and other research scanning and synthesising techniques for policy and practice. COURSE EVALUATIONS OVERVIEW The results presented below have been aggregated across all of the courses; the responses from each were very similar on most points. Course participants were asked why they chose to do the course they did specifically with regard to what their motivation was in improving their research skills. The results from this are shown graphically below.  To get a better idea of the audience we were capturing, we also asked what area participants were employed in. Again the results are shown graphically below.  Critique of course presenters The participants were asked to judge the performance of the course presenters on four aspects using a 10-point scale with 1 = poor and 10 = very good. The variables examined, and mean scores for each, were: course organisation (8.22) knowledge of the subject matter (9.23) presentation of course material (8.30) responsiveness to participants needs/questions (8.86). Critique of course amenities The participants were asked to judge the quality of the amenities and support that were provided during the course, again using a 10-point scale. The variables examined, and mean scores for each, were: morning and afternoon teas (8.10) teaching rooms (8.13) computing resources (8.72). Critique of course organisation/administration The participants were asked to judge the quality of the organisation and administration of the course programme, again using a 10-point scale. The variables examined, and mean scores for each, were: initial enrolment feedback (website) (8.83) first confirmation email (8.54) final information email (8.37). 91% of participants thought that the level of the content in the course they attended was about right, and basically what they had expected. 67% said that they would definitely recommend to others the course they attended, and another 24% said that they probably would. Common suggestions for improving the courses included ensuring course materials are well laid out, presented with page numbers, and if possible and appropriate in some instances, distributed before the course to allow reading ahead. There were requests for more variation in teaching styles for some of the courses, especially with more group activities desired in those courses that were amenable to such. These are all points that we will pass on to the instructors. There were also various comments regarding changing course lengths. This always seems to be the case but there tends to be disagreement among attendees whether specific courses should be shortened or lengthened! We are looking at having different-length courses in future programmes, e.g. a three-day course and a two-day course within one week, to match the established week structure and allow progression over a shorter period. As always, thank you for your input; we will endeavour to improve our organisation in the areas suggested and try to get the instructors to do the same. We hope to see you again at another NZSSN short course programme.
|
