Evaluation is often a neglected area within a digitisation project’s life cycle, as most of a team’s energies and resources get absorbed by the complex task of setting up the right infrastructure to carry out the actual digitisation of material. At times subsumed within the more technical Quality Assurance process, at best it’s the kind of activity that comes as an after-thought towards the end of a project.
Within the current JISC digitisation programme, and at the request of many of the 16 projects taking part, we’ve tackled the issue of evaluation from very early on.
Last September JISC ran an evaluation workshop for all projects which provided guidance on a methodological framework for evaluation based on the booklet Six Steps to Effective Evaluation: A Handbook for Programme and Project Managers, developed for JISC by Glenaffric Ltd, who also led the workshop.
The workshop also attempted to coordinate evaluation efforts at programme and projects level, in recognition of the fact that projects are the key sources of information for the programme evaluation as well.
More information and copies of the presentations and hand-outs provided at the workshop are available on the JISC web site.
JISC will soon publish an Invitation To Tender for carrying out an evaluation study of the Phase Two Digitisation Programme.
A report on the evaluation study of the JISC Digitisation Programme Phase One is available on the JISC web site.