Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Asking the right questions – Tools and Methods

Once you have determined the specific focus of the evaluation and who can provide you with the information you are looking for, you need to decide how you will collect the data. Will you send out a survey, lead a focus group, conduct one-to-one interviews or a combination of these methods? What types of questions will you ask? (i.e. multiple choice, yes/no, open-ended, etc.). Will you use paper-based survey tools or will you ask questions orally?

Interviews, focus groups or surveys done with students can help you determine how those students are using their skills. Since outcomes-based evaluation measures your agency’s impact on students, let’s start with some questions you could ask students.

Sometimes it can be difficult for students to articulate the impact that literacy training has had on their lives. You need to think carefully about what questions you can ask to help you get this information. You might need to provide specific examples. For example, you might ask if their enhanced literacy skills mean that they can read the newspaper or complete an application form on their own. You might also ask them if friends or family members have noticed any changes. You can ask very directed questions about the type of things they are reading and writing or how they use their literacy skills at work, at home or at school. You can ask if they are better able to understand what they read, if it takes them less time to read something or if they are reading different types of things such as novels or newspapers or magazines.

This type of specific question can help you identify direct impacts of your literacy program. However, you might also want to identify some less direct impacts that attempt to measure how life might have changed. To capture this information, you can ask about things that students do now that they didn’t do before that could be a result of not only their enhanced literacy skills but also enhanced self-confidence in using those skills.

For example, you could ask if they have started volunteering or if they find it easier to go shopping. You could ask if they are more comfortable speaking in a group or if they use a computer more often than in the past. You could ask if they now use the library regularly or if they can use a banking machine independently.

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