Evaluation Cookbook

Focus groups are moderated meetings of 'involved' people discussing their experience of an educational intervention. They are a useful tool for formative/developmental or summative/retrospective evaluation and can serve as a single, self-contained method or link to other evaluation activities.

Uses
 Generating hypotheses
 Developing interview schedules
 Identifying key issues
 Developing emergent themes
 Illuminating quantitative responses
 'Learner centred' course development
 Getting reflective feedback on interim interpretations of study outcomes
Main Advantage.
Main Disadvantage.

Resource Guide (info)
Preparation time: moderate to low
Student time: low
Time to administer: low
Time for analysis: moderate
Additional resources: none

Author
Erica McAteer
University of Glasgow.