The First Stage: Program Evaluation Kit

Program Questionnaire
Each program began by implementing Audrey Thomas' program evaluation tool. The coordinators invited a cross section of tutors, students, and Board/Advisory Committee members for an informal pizza dinner or coffee and snacks, in order to have a discussion based on the Program Questionnaire and its Good Practice statements.
A total of 94 people from the four programs attended these sessions and completed the Questionnaires over a 2½ to 3 hour period.

Tutor Questionnaire
The individual tutor questionnaires were mailed to a total of 180 tutors in the four programs and 116 tutors returned them. The average return rate for programs was 64.5% (see Table 2 for summary of the results).

Learner Questionnaire
A total of 48 students completed the questionnaires through face-to-face interviews with the coordinators. An additional 102 students received the learner questionnaires in the mail and 56 completed them, some with assistance from their tutors. Thus a total of 105 students, or 67%, provided feedback through the individual questionnaires.

Altogether, 314 program members participated in the piloting of this tool. There was some overlap between program members who completed individual questionnaires and who participated in the group process. However, we estimate an overall participation rate of approximately 70%. We were satisfied with the overall rate of return and the level of participation which is considered high for this type of survey.