Audrey Roerrer on Google Tools for Multi-site Evaluation

Hi, I’m Audrey Rorrer and I’m an evaluator for the Center for Education Innovation in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where several projects I evaluate operate at multiple locations across the country.  Multisite evaluations are loaded with challenges, such as data collection integrity, evaluation training for local project leaders, and the cost of resources. My go-to resource has become Google because it’s cost-effective both in terms of efficiency and budget (it’s free). I’ve used it as a data collection tool and resource dissemination tool.

Lessons Learned:

Data Collection and Storage:

  • Google Forms works like a survey reporting tool with a spreadsheet of data behind it, for ease in collecting and analyzing project information.
  • Google Forms can be sent as an email so that the recipients can respond to items directly within the email.
  • Google documents, spreadsheets, and forms can be shared with any collaborators, whether or not they have a gmail account.
  • Google Drive is a convenient storage source in ‘the cloud.’

Resource Dissemination:

  • Google Sites provides easy to use website templates that enable fast website building for people without web development skills.
  • Google Groups is a way to create membership wikis, for project management and online collaboration.

Rad Resource: Go to www.google.com and search for products. Then scroll down the page to check out the business & office options, and the social options.

For a demonstration of how I’ve used google tools in multisite evaluation, join the AEA Coffee Break Webinar on February 27, “Doing it virtually: Online tools for managing multisite evaluation.” You can register here.

Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

 

1 thought on “Audrey Roerrer on Google Tools for Multi-site Evaluation”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.