BeyondRigor.org: Swimming in a Sea of Context
Did you know:
• people answer questions differently if they provide information about their race and sex before they answer
the questions;
• people give different answers if they know what you are looking for;
• observers see things differently based on what they think the sex of the people being observed is?
If you didn’t know these things or even if you did, you need to check out BeyondRigor.org (and not just because it’s from me, Tom, and Eric Jolly). The goal of the website is to improve evaluations, and research, done with diverse populations and since all populations are diverse…
It’s got great illustrations from Lee Abuabara and a bunch of easy to use tips to:
• make the data collection process more inclusive and the data collected more accurate
• make the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data more rigorous and better able to determine “what works
for whom in what context”
• make the data collected more responsive to project/program, stakeholder, and funder goals and needs
• help program officers and reviewers better critique evaluation plans and assess how well evaluations are
working.
Not only that, you can get information to better understand the role of context and better understand how factors such as how participant gender, disability, and even military service can influence what data should be collected and how.
We hope you like it, use it and tell everyone you can think of about it.
PS It was funded by the National Science Foundation. Thanks NSF