Impact Analysis and Follow-on Capacity Building Work from Delegates Feedbacks

Transcription

1 2014 International School on Advanced Research Methods Data Analysis and Software Training, 30 June-5 July 2014, National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, Nigeria Impact Analysis and Follow-on Capacity Building Work from Delegates Feedbacks By Dr Patrick Oseloka EZEPUE (Key Facilitator) (BSc. MSc, PhD, PgCELTHE, PgCBA, MEE- UK, FHEA-UK, FRSS) Research Lead/PhD Supervisor, Statistics and Information Modelling Research Research Lead/PhD Supervisor, Stochastic Modelling and Applied Statistics Research in Business and Finance, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Director of Research and Innovation, African Higher Education & Research Observatory, UK Compiled on: 16 July 2014

2 1. Preamble The evaluation of delegates feedbacks on the School complements the detailed feedbacks from within-school 1-1 research surgeries between delegates and the facilitators, and the responses to their individual research methods questions which the key facilitator has provided to the delegates. A hallmark of these feedbacks is the fact that vital suggestions for improvement of delegates learning experiences from the feedbacks are proactively implemented in future runs of the events. Hence, the 2015 version of the School will be similarly improved. Finally, it should be noted that only about 26 out of the approximately 60 delegates to the School completed the forms, due principally to the fact that many of the delegates had already written down their comments in the individual questions they asked of the facilitators. The facilitators therefore regard the combined evidence base from these feedbacks adequate for a good understanding of the quality of the School. 2. Summary and evaluation of delegates feedbacks The evaluation is carried out in two steps: a) statistics of the Likert-scaled items on the feedback forms and b) collation of the text-based comments on the remaining items. Summary of Likert-scaled items Item 1. The workshop publicity was sufficient and informative 2. The workshop was scheduled at a suitable time 3. Considering the content of the programme versus the material covered, your learning objectives were met 4. The workshop content was applicable to my job/career situation 5. The presenters responded to the questions in an appropriate and satisfactory manner 6. The workshop documents were clear and useful 7. The practical software training will support my academic/career research work 8. Overall, the School was informative and valuable 9. Would you recommend this workshop school to a colleague or friend? Frequency scores SA A N D SD % of SA/ A or Yes Comments Needs massive improvement Maintain the schedule Good, but improve based on the feedbacks Maintain these Maintain these Maintain these Maintain these Maintain these Yes (25) No (0) 100 Maintain these The results evidence an overall satisfaction level of 96% in the delegates learning experiences, despite which, in keeping with the uncommon which are part of the GLOSSTRA-AFRIHERO performance ethos, the organisers will work to improve all aspects of the event, particularly publicity and how the School meets delegates learning objectives. Page 2

3 The main steps in improving the publicity and match with learning objectives should be to: 1. Aggressively expand the internationally driven databased e-publicity which is the most successful element of the publicity 2. Ensure that partner s databases are integrated with the GLOSSTRA-AFRIHERO main database for this purpose 3. Use past delegates as programme ambassadors in the various locales 4. Group delegates into disciplinary and professional clusters in the hand-on exercises and data analyses 5. Ensure as is the case now that relevant case studies, data samples, and exercises are provided for the different activities. Summary of text-based items 10. The workshop may have provided you an overview of research methods and related data analysis software. Please indicate which workshop topics you will like to receive more in-depth and stand-alone training on in the future. Responses are: 1. More data analysis, 2. Fundamentals of Statistics, 3. Grant writing, 4. Topic formulation, 5. Analytical interpretation of research findings, 6. Software training, 7. SPSS, epi-info, 8. MATLAB training and mathematical modelling, 9. SPSS methodology, 10. SPSS/R, 11. Proposal writing, Data Analysis and Presentation, 12. Statistical Analysis, Literature Review and Methodology, 13. R, Triple Helix and CARESS skills 11. Please suggest other workshops that may be useful to you. Responses are: 1. Data analysis/manuscript writing, 2. Further programming in R or SPSS, Data analysis and interpretation, 3. Grant writing and entrepreneurship, 4. Software analysis, script and grant writing, 5. Workshop on Biomathematics, 6. Data Analysis and Software Training for the Physical Sciences, 7. Any workshop on research of this quality, 8. Scientific Computing Python, MATLAB, Maple, C++, 9. Workshop on Experimental Design and their Applications, 10. Workshop on R, 11. Repeat Research Methods and Data Analysis Workshops, 12. Methodology tailored to Management and Social Sciences. 12. From the indicated list of possible adjectives, choose up to 5 words that appropriately describe your learning experience of the two components of the School programme, Research Methods Ideas (R) and Software-Driven Data Analysis (S) Responses are: 1. Inspirational, Realistic, Innovative 2. Invigorating, hands-on 3. Motivational, educative, interesting, basic, hands-on and relevant 4. Useful, involving, enlightening, relevant, made me think 5. Challenging, confusing, academic, useful, over my head 6. Inspirational, enlightening, straightforward, R is an eye opener, involving, absorbing, valuable, made me think 7. Involving, challenging, inspirational, interesting, relevant 8. Provoking, involving, enlightening, relevant, useful, valuable Page 3

4 9. Enlightening, straightforward, realistic, hand-on, thorough, Wow! This training will indeed change the way I carry out research in my field 10. Involving, challenging, interesting, straightforward, realistic, academic, relevant 11. Inspirational, enlightening, academic, relevant, valuable 12. The research methods and software training were both educative R involving, S involving, S challenging, R inspirational, S hands-on, R provoking 13. Educating, engaging, challenging, valuable, motivating 14. Entertaining, straightforward, hands-on, academic, valuable, the sessions made research as a whole easier and doable 15. R involving, S challenging, R inspirational, S hands-on 16. R academic, S relevant, R comprehensive, R valuable, T made me think 13. Please note down any other comments in your own words The responses are: 1. The basic concept is a clear rebirth of the Corporate Academic with a more diverse and purposefully oriented and entrepreneurial training 2. The conference began rather slowly but built up strongly which has revolutionised my ideas on research methodologies 3. I wish you well in your struggle to see that you improve the research environment of Nigeria, Africa and the whole world. God will see you through. 4. The program was very wonderful, I will like to attend next time 5. Expository and motivating 6. The host institution should present better subsequently in the area of electricity 7. I enjoyed every bit of the training. I hope to follow up on things I learned. However, I would like to suggest that all lecture materials should be burnt on CD during future trainings. 8. The workshop is an eye opener in the area of research methods. The hand-on training on R, Excel and SPSS has empowered the trainees to train others upon leaving here. I believe that the training will change the outlook and the quality of research in our educational institutions when the concepts are fully internalized through constant practice. This workshop can also turn some into global players in the area of research. Thanks for your kindness. 9. Afrihero should include a newsletter in the website, so as to get first-hand information on future programs. 10. The workshop was timely and the overall benefit is tremendous. New insights were obtained and more discoveries on the application of some software were made during the course of the workshop. 11. It will be interesting to have Webinar sessions. 12. The presenters were actually willing to impart knowledge. 13. Good value for money. Please help the NMC to improve on surroundings. Great location, though NMC staffs were very cautious too. 14. Good workshop, but I think in the future it should be based on the disciplines of the delegates to make for maximum impact. 15. Gained a new perspective on research and publishing scholarly articles. It s wholly an eye opener. 16. The exercises were engaging and dynamic. I appreciate the command of the presenters 17. Wow! This training will indeed change the way I carry out research in my field. Page 4

5 3. Implications for future events and follow-on capacity building work The above notes show an overwhelming attraction of the off-textbook innovative ideas on research formulation, literature reviews and methodology across the board, with calls for additional discipline-based training in which delegates interact more closely on set exercises. We feel that such a combination of offerings should prevail in future outings in the following ways: 1. Annual re-runs of this staple programme as an International School in suitable partner and hired venues, say, HEIs, hotels, and conference centres in Nigeria and Africa this will be rotated annually to different geopolitical zones in Nigeria, Africa and developing countries as the hub of the programme. 2. Specialist discipline-focused versions which can be taken to ramified audience bases such as HEI and private sector departments and faculties, corporate organisations, government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) which constitute the spokes of the programme. 3. Aggressive pursuit of partnership funding and sponsorships to make the programme affordable to students and majority of the academics, especially younger faculty. 4. Immediate adaptation of the programme into a full-fledged Online Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis Institute mediated by GLOSSTRA, AFRIHERO, related organisations, and supported by internationally leading panel of experts from academia, industry and governments around the world. This global offering will be owned by the Global Strategic Services and Training (GLOSSTRA) while the African continental facet will be owned by AFRIHERO. 5. Consequently, building a dedicated website for the School which will house all the knowledge ware for access through passwords by paid-up candidates. 6. Developing the Institute in the medium term into an online degree awarding HEI in partnership with selected universities around the world with a range of Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma programmes of 6 months to 1 year durations, respectively, which culminate in a 2-year MSc in Applied Statistics and Research. Indicative follow-on training programmes engendered by the above notes are as follows: 1. Fundamentals of Applied Statistics in Research and Knowledge Work at Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced Levels 2. Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis for Physical Sciences Using R and MATLAB 3. Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis for Social Sciences and Humanities Using SPSS and NVivo 4. Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis for Business and Finance Using Advanced Excel Analysis, SPSS and EVIews 5. Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis for Medical and Health Sciences Using SPSS and NVivo 6. Workshops on Triple Helix Skills for University-Industry-Government Collaborations, Writing Winning Research Grants/Proposals, Highly Publishable Papers, and Best-in-Class Textbooks and Research Monographs 7. 2-Day Research Methods Workshops on Research Design, Critical Literature Reviews, and Effective Multi-Methodology Using the AFRIHERO Corporate Academic Research Structuring System (CARESS ) Page 5

6 8. 2-Day Workshops on Academics Graduates and Professionals as Entrepreneurs: Using the AFRIHERO Integrated Corporate Academic Career Self-Management Model (ICA Model ) 9. Series of 2-Day Specialist Workshops on R, SPSS, MATLAB, Advanced Excel Analysis, NVivo, EViews 10. Specialist workshops on Scientific Computing Python, MATLAB, Maple, C Summary and conclusion This report evaluates and developed improvement insights from the delegates feedbacks which will directly inform future events. It showed a need to improve the effectiveness of the programme publicity by GLOSSTRA-AFRIHERO and partner institutions. It particularly outlined a hub-and spoke range of related capacity building events targeted mainly on Nigeria, Africa and developing countries. 5. Acknowledgments The author is grateful to the Director/CEO of the NMC and President of the African Mathematical Union, Professor A R T SOLARIN, for his kind support of the event as part of the capacity building effort of the NMC. The author is also immensely appreciative of the co-facilitators of the 2013 and 2014 versions of the event Dr Nnamdi Agwuegbo (HOD Statistics, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta FUNAAB, Nigeria), Isenah Godknows (UI), Michael Ifeanyi Ilogu (Bristol, UK), Professor Dilly Anumba (Professor of Gynecology and Dean of Postgraduate Studies, University of Sheffield Medical School, UK), Professor Godfrey Udoh (Professor of Real Estate and Dean Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Uyo, Nigeria), Professor J N Mojekwu (Professor of Actuarial Science & Social Statistics, University of Lagos, Nigeria), Associate Professor John Emeka Ezike (Banking and Finance, University of Lagos), Professor Anayo Nkamnebe (Professor of Marketing, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State, Nigeria), Dr, Daniel Okhonghue (PhD Oxford and Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, University of Benin), Dr David Olalekan Adeniyi (PhD Chemical Engineering University of Sheffield and Senior Lecturer Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, Nigeria). Finally, the author thanks the organizers Professor John Olusola Adeniran (Professor of Mathematics FUNAAB on sabbatical leave at the NMC), Festus Akinboro (Lecturer and PhD Student, FUNAAB and Sheffield Hallam University, UK), Dr Victor Haastrup (PhD Mathematics and HOD Computer Sciences, Yaba College of Technology Lagos, Nigeria), Etim (NMC Abuja Administrator for the 2014 ARMDA-SWTR International School) and all the delegates to the events for their support and helpful feedbacks which inform continuing improvements on the quality of the training materials. Dr Patrick Oseloka EZEPUE (Key Facilitator) Sheffield Hallam University, UK On behalf the facilitators and NMC Page 6