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There are a few ways to assess the specific details about your community's need. It is important to know how your community Access need exhibits itself currently and how your stakeholders might take advantage of potential solutions. This information will be essential in the next phase as you decide on a solution for your community. Depending on your organization, you may choose one of the options below of even use a combination of methods.
Surveys
Surveys
One of the most common ways to get information from your community is to issue a survey. Surveys are simple, can be sent out en masse, and the data is easily digested. If possible, I would suggest combining an Access survey with another survey so that your community doesn't get to "surveyed out."
There are some challenges though that are exaggerated when the topic of the survey is Access. For example, we want to assess stakeholders Digital Access but like to send out surveys digitally. Even if you offer an analog alternative, the question must be asked if you are reaching a proportional subset of your stakeholder group. If the survey is given only analog, there is the task of quantifying the data which can be time consuming. Both digital and analog surveys still can be difficult to get to all of your community which can raise questions about the accuracy of your data.
Even so, a survey may still be right for you. Here is an example of the survey we sent to our parents and students. We worked together with our communications director to choose the best method for getting this survey to as many stakeholders as possible. Primarily, we collected the data through a live form but we also offered paper copies for families who couldn't access the digital form. We also translated both the digital and paper forms into Spanish as our primary second language.
Interviews
Interviews
If you see your stakeholders frequently, you may consider just asking them. This is a great way to ask follow up questions what you may not have anticipated in the beginning. This can be informal or more planned. Both individual conversations and group discussions can be very helpful in learning how your community deals with Digital Access. As you prepare to interview your stakeholders, be careful to get a representative sample of your community and eliminate any personal biases.
Many of the questions you see above on the survey could be asked face-to-face during individual or group interviews.
Pilot Programs
Pilot Programs
Sometimes it is hard to get surveys to stakeholders or to get people to sit down for an interview. When this happens, consider offering a limited pilot. By purchasing a few hotspots or offering limited "lab hours," you can give your stakeholders a opportunity to take advantage of a temporary solution. This process may draw out stakeholders who are interested but were not engaging in your other information-gathering strategies.
We used an existing online learning pilot to help identify the need for our general student population. By offering Kajeet hopspots for students enrolled in our online learning pilot, we were able to identify a more concrete number of 15% who were in need at home Access support. This was close to our survey estimate but confirmed some questions we had due to inherent biases in the survey process.
A few pilot suggestions:
- Purchase a limited number of hotspots and let stakeholders know that they are available
- Open a computer lab for "open lab hours" on a limited basis then share on social media
- Connect with a local business (or several) to "share" their Internet Access and advertise this with your stakeholders
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