Assessing Community Telecentres - Guidelines for Researchers

This guidebook examines the effectiveness of community telecentres in developing countries worldwide. Telecentres are set up to offer services such as telephone, fax, email, Internet, telemedicine, distance education, news distribution and telecommuting - but do they answer to the needs of the communities they are seeking to serve? How do social equity and economic development come into play?

This guidebook intends to assist researchers who are assessing and evaluating the role and impact of community telecentres.

Contents

Foreword

Executive Summary

1. Introduction
Purpose of these guidelines; Some key definitions; The Evaluation and Learning System for Acacia

2. The Telecentre Evaluation Plan
Identifying the research questions; Systems approaches to evaluation; Identifying the stakeholders; Evaluation design; Resource planning; Developing an evaluation framework

3. Indicators in Telecentre Studies
Developing indicators for telecentre projects; Telecentre performance indicators; Indicators of sustainability; Applications and information content; Impact indicators

4. Issues in Sampling and Surveying
Guiding principles for data collection in the Acacia Initiative; Issues related to sampling; Issues related to surveys

5. Matching Research Methods to Data Neeeds [sic]
Performance reports; Questionnaires; Projective techniques; Attitude scales; Observation techniques; Group techniques; Participatory and self assessment approaches; Household budgets and diaries

6. Data Analysis and Reporting
General considerations; Implications for analysis; Acacia Stakeholder Information System; The Evaluation and Learning System for Acacia

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Bibliography