Document details

Remote Evaluations: Initial Experience and Recommendations

Braunschweig; Berlin: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (National Metrology Institute) (2021), 10 pp.
"Advantages and disadvantages of remote evaluations: Advantages: environmentally friendly and applicable in case of travel restrictions; a cost-effective and more efficient implementation is possible; reduction of the project staff's workload; flexibility in scheduling the data collection, interviews, group discussions; integration of interviewees from different locations; online connection with interviewees facilitates second contact; flexible employment of interpreters; making use of digital tools. Disadavantages: making it difficult to develop a common understanding within the team of evaluators; lack of observations (e. g. equipment in laboratories, interviewees in the working environment); poorer contact quality with interviewees; risk that the momentum of the evaluation is lost and impressions disappear; less informal communication with interviewees and project team; strong focus on facts and more difficult consideration of the emotional level; more difficult assessment of the accuracy of recommendations; dependence on technology." (Background, page 4)
1 Changes in the course of the evaluation, 5
2 Adapting the methods of data collection, 7
3 Technical aspects of virtual implementation, 9
4 Important considerations for conducting a remote evaluation, 10