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Diversity in Technology Group
Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) Gateway Project
Evaluation

Washington EYH Evaluation Tools
EYH conferences use a variety of tools to evaluate their conferences. Most conferences have a student survey and a presenter survey. Some conferences also conduct volunteer surveys.

The following is a sample of conference evaluation tools that EYH conferences in Washington have used.  These are available to use or modify by clicking on the links to the files.



Advice on Developing or Modifying Your Own EYH Evaluation Tools
If you want to develop or modify evaluation tools for your conference, here are some suggestions regarding format and content.

Format
• To increase your response rate, make your surveys quick and easy to respond to by providing response options wherever possible. Short answer responses are more time-consuming for people to respond to, and the data is more time-consuming to analyze. For example:

How did you feel about the number of students in your group? ____________________

   Vs.

How did you feel about the number of students in your group?

Too Many                        Just Right                        Not Enough


• Use Likert or numeric scales rather than "Yes or No" responses to get more specific data. For example:

Did you receive enough information to prepare for your conference presentation?

Yes               No

   Vs.

I received adequate information prior to the conference to help me prepare my presentation.

Strongly Agree         Agree            Neutral            Disagree           Strongly Disagree


• Line up the rating definitions with the ratings. Example:

  Confusing:

Poor         Average      Excellent     
1     2        3      4           5      6  

  Good:

Poor           Average          Excellent
1         2          3         4         5

• Determine what format is best to get the information you need. It might be best to get feedback from certain groups verbally than by survey. The SMARTgirls EYH in Seattle holds a presenter lunch during the conference and solicits verbal feedback from presenters.

• Hone your questions. Ask only the questions you need answers to. Consider what you will do with the information you get to each question. If you will not make a change based on the responses to the question, consider omitting that question.


Content
• Ask questions that measure the goals or objectives of the conference. Here are some sample questions you could use with a Likert scale response:

  1. This conference makes me more interested in taking classes in math, science, or technology.
  2. I learned about careers that I didn’t know about before today.
  3. I am more interested in working in a science, technology, engineering, or math career now.

• Find out whether volunteers or presenters are interested in volunteering again, but protect anonymity by making contact information optional.

• Ask presenters or volunteers to provide names and contact information of other people who might want to present or volunteer.

• Ask presenters how well the facility and/or equipment met their needs.

• Find out what was great and what could have been improved about the conference.

• Have students rate the individual workshops and the conference overall. Have the students rate the opening assembly if you have a presenter for that as well.

• Have students rate how hands-on the workshops were.

• Ask students their suggestions for future workshops.

• Collect student demographic information, such as race and grade.

• Ask students how they found out about the conference. The data will help with recruiting students next year.

 

 

Links to Evaluation Design and Survey Design Resources

Online Evaluation Resource Library
Developing Written Questionnaires: Questionnaire Design
By Alexis Mitman Colker, Ph.D
http://oerl.sri.com/module/mod3/m3_p1.html

Dillman, D. A. (2000). Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method. Second Edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

For more information about the Washington EYH Gateway Project, please contact

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