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Open Educational Resources Advocacy Toolkit

What Does it Mean to Evaluate OER Advocacy?

Each previous stage of the Toolkit has offered Evaluation Checkpoints to recognise the role of constant monitoring and evaluative processes. Iterative evaluation is essential for making adjustments throughout the advocacy life cycle, leading to a full evaluation at the conclusion of your activities.

Likewise, the Toolkit has stressed the importance of setting clear advocacy goals because you can't evaluate the effectiveness of your actions without understanding the purpose behind them.

Most advocates will measure their outcomes, such as the:

  • number of students benefitting from OER
  • number of staff engaged with OER
  • amount of cost savings to students
  • number of OER produced by the institution.

These are relatively easy measures to gauge and are usual inclusions for outcomes-based reporting. However, it's just as important to measure the effectiveness of your advocacy strategy in:

  • influencing stakeholders
  • changing attitudes
  • transforming behaviours
  • building partnerships.

Measuring and reporting these outcomes is more challenging, but part of a deliberate and purposeful advocacy strategy.