Data and Evaluation
Data is an essential part of what disability practitioners and disability services teams need to support service outcomes and to drive change and innovation. This section covers some essential information on how you can utilise data – both quantitative and qualitative – to support your work. Whether you are a beginner or experienced using data this information will hopefully add value to your work.
Why is data important?
Data helps to:
- meet legislative obligations e.g., Disability Support Program funding, enrolment reporting
- identify and meet institutional objectives
- inform policy
- identify priorities for action or further research
- evaluate our work
- hold people/areas to account and provide feedback.
When is data good data?
- when it is collected consistently
- when it is a big enough data set for the purpose intended
- looked at in context e.g., with analysis and additional data such as qualitative elements
- scrutinised and challenged (bad data in = bad data out)
- not used to purely draw conclusions.
In this section...
There is information for practitioners in both the Higher Education and VET sectors on using large data sets, working with your own institutional data, undertaking evaluation of your programs and activities, case studies from education providers, and additional resources and links to explore.
- Big data sets
- Higher Education data including latest analysis
- VET data including latest analysis
- Data Resources
Acknowledgement
This information has been drawn from a webinar series presented by Merrin McCracken and Dr Kelly George and draws on survey data and case studies from Disability Services Managers and Disability Practitioners.