Measurement and Evaluation:
Indicators of Engagement
Professor Ronnie Munck (DCU) & Dr Rhonda Wynne (UCD)
Today
 Current discussion on indicators
 Developing indicators: challenges and
approaches
 Moving on: Campus Engage Indicators
Introductions
 Who you are…
 What civic engagement indicators
are talked about in your
institution?
 What activities or initiatives are
included?
Work to date…
 Working Group on Metrics and Evaluation
 Charter for Irish Higher Education Civic and
Community Engagement
 Supplementary document on Indicators of
Engagement
Challenges
 What are the wider benefits to
the community ?
 How to prove value?
 Why bother?
 What to include?
 How to account for activities that
are not easily monetised?
 How to demonstrate
commitment to civic and
community engagement?
Qualitative Approach
• Mission
• Identity
• Commitment
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Plans, budgets, staff
Institutional infrastructure
Recruitment, promotion
Data gathering, tracking
Teaching and Learning
Scholarship
Outreach and partnership
Quantitative Approach
DCU VALUE PROJECT
Shadow Pricing
PARALLEL
PRICE
A Market-equivalent fee (a ‘parallel price’) was used to impute a
value for the full time FUTSAL programme. To determine a
‘market-equivalent fee’ we reviewed a range of courses (including
FE Colleges) offering similar types of coaching and training
activity.
OPPORTUNITY For volunteering work , we applied the ‘opportunity cost’ of an
COST
hour of volunteer delivery time at minimum wage rates.
PARTICIPANT
TIME-COST
The remainder of the activities delivered were priced using
participant time-cost (with a rate derived from CSO sources.) The
time-cost approach is frequently used in for evaluation of
transport initiatives ie set by government rather than freely in the
market
Shadow Pricing
Economic Value
Socially Modified
Economic Value
FUTSAL
€149,773
€284,569
VOLUNTEERING
€5450
€5450
OTHER ACTIVITIES
€62663
€113,418
TOTAL
€217,886
€403,437
Social Weighting
•
Around 90% of all general DCU in the community are participants are from low
income ‘priority groups.’ The appropriate weighting (1.9) can be applied to the
economic value result (reflecting the greater social value being delivered). This
would have the effect of giving a Socially modified Economic Value of €113,418
for the activities measured.
•
Taking all of the elements together, the overall value generated by a single year’s
outputs from (2012) DCU in the Community was considerable.
•
DCU in the community students range in age from 18 to 75 years of age.
Approximately 60% of students come from Ballymun. There are significantly
more women attending with the male to female ratio being 3 : 7 Over 90% are
unemployed and receiving welfare benefits while the remaining 10% work part
time. In addition to their lack of financial assistance, many are returning adults
who are balancing the demands of family while enrolled in college courses.
Regional Impact: Proactive
1. Business innovation which is closely linked,
although not exclusively, to the research function of
the university,
2. Human capital development linked to the
teaching function
3. Community development linked to the public
service role of universities.
4. Contribution to the institutional capacity of the
region through engagement of its management and
members in local civil society.
Self –assessment Tool
• embrace the contribution of research to
business innovation
• teaching and learning to human capital
development
• and university engagement with community
and place development
• and the degree of interconnection between
all three strands of activity
Self –assessment Tool
• It should identify progress along the spectrum
from transactional to transformational
interventions. This will need to take account of
the extent to which the university is connected to
public institutions and the private sector.
• In evaluating place of HE in the region it will be
necessary for all of the partners to address the
issues and identify steps that could be taken to
draw each sector together in order to move
towards the connected region where universities
are key players.
Campus Engage Indicators
• Suggested activities of an engaged institution…
• Balance between ‘parsimony and precision’
• Decisions about what is important and
meaningful
• Will vary between institutions
• Evolving as work develops
Moving on
 Consider the CE
indicators
 What can you progress in
your institution?
Launch of Campus Engage CBL & CBR
Mentoring Programme for Academic Staff
Aims
• to build capacity and increase the number of Community-based
Learning (CBL) and Community-based Research (CBR) practitioners
and champions on campuses
• to facilitate the development of skills to implement and embed CBL
and CBR in HEIs
• to communicate the benefits of CBL and CBR to educators and
learners
Implementation
• Regional one day Kick Start Sessions in September 2014 to support
you in developing a CBL / CBR project proposal
• Subsequent mentor support and a summer forum to share learning
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at the afternoon workshops