Online Evaluation Survey Results

Alcohol Learning Centre First Half Year Evaluation Survey

Background and Summary

These findings present the results of the first 6 month online evaluation survey of the Alcohol Learning Centre (ALC) website which was conducted via a brief online questionnaire between the months of June and July 2009. ALC was launched in November 2008 and it is important for us to know if we are meeting the needs of our site users both in terms of the usefulness of the content and in the way it is organised and presented. We also wanted to establish where information and resource delivery gaps exist so that we can improve design, organisation and content to better meet the needs of those working to reduce alcohol harm and deliver the high impact changes for alcohol.

Given that the website is still relatively new and content development in its infancy these results are extremely positive and indicate that organisation and delivery of content is working on the right lines. The feedback received on where information gaps exist is also encouraging as many of these areas, for example, evidence, cross departmental partnership working and strategic sharing of information are in development. We have published guidance on IBA training, commissioning, hospitals, evidence and the high Impact changes in the last few weeks and other information content will continue to emerge as more learning is shared between our major stakeholders such as the regional alcohol managers and early implementer PCT's.

There are other areas, namely service user input, greater information about costs, linkage of indicators and local impact that require further action and this is something that the Alcohol Improvement Programme via the process regional engagement can move forward with.

Please feel free to comment on this report or email us to suggest other content at:info@alcohollearningcentre.org.uk

You can download the full report here where there is a list of recommendations:

• ALC Online Evaluation Half Year Report Aug 09
  This report presents the findings from the first half year online evaluation survey of the ALC website. The findings report on the usability and usefulness of the site and it's content.

Results

Satisfaction and Usefulness

As the charts below demonstrate, over half (58%) found the site overall to be good with just under half finding the site excellent (42%) No one found the site to be either unsatisfactory or poor.

Furthermore, over half of those surveyed (51%) found the site to be very useful and 37% useful. Just over a tenth of users (12%) found the site 'somewhat useful' and again no one found it 'un-useful'.

Quality of Content

Just under ¾ of respondents (70%) found that the site provided them with the information they required 'to a great extent', and 17% to 'a very great extent'. Again these positive scores combined indicate that around 87% of visitors to the site can find what they are looking for. Again the negative responses were minimal with only 13% finding information 'to a small extent' and nobody scoring in the 'to a very small extent' category.

With regards to the accuracy and presentation of the information, 87% found the site information well presented and accurate (23% very well presented and very accurate and 64% well presented and accurate) Again no one found the site badly presented, and only 13% were, 'somewhat satisfied' with presentation and accuracy of information. Respondents were also asked, 'If you did not find what you were looking for, what information would you like to see?' 17 people out of 52 responded and these responses are summarised below. A full list of responses can also be found in appendix 2 of the full report.

• Service User Input
• Commissioning and Behaviour Change implementation, consumers and service providers.
• New alcohol initiatives
• Evidence e.g. 'links to recent papers by influential authors in the field .
• The latest research on alcohol treatment. You also should publish the
• evidence base for elearning, and evaluate it against the other styles.
• Cost benefit analysis of alcohol interventions '
• Data on young people's drinking
• High Impact Changes
• Training and Tenders
• Better access and navigation
• Criminal Justice ,'linking health to other areas such as criminal justice (ATR'S) and community safety partenships (CDRP's) as this is often how projects are delivered on the ground with the PCT working in close partnership with other agencies.'
• Contact phone number
• Sharing of local strategies, 'all la's and PCT's should have to share their Strategic documents, needs assessments, and action plans, so that service users can take them to task if they are wanting'
• International Good Practice
• Cross referenced resources signposted for individual and group client work
• News and Events
• Simple guidance on how the National indicators link together and can be used locally

Ease of Navigation and Accessibility

This response highlights potential problems with the organisation and design of the website including ease of access in locating information using the navigational menus, subject topics, search engine and related resources, and also with the readability and adaptability of formats of the information. Just under half found the website easy to access and navigate and over a ¼ (27%) very easy to access and navigate. A further ¼ of respondents were less satisfied with the access and navigation of the site.

Frequency of Internet Use

The vast majority of the respondents are used to searching for information on the Internet with 85% using the web often and only 15% sometimes. No one taking part in the survey was using it rarely or not at all. We can safely infer that visitors to the ALC website are overwhelmingly used to using web based resources and thus better equipped to rate their satisfaction accordingly.

Respondents by Employment Area

NB: Of the 17% answering in the 'other category' the majority were in the voluntary sector. The full report provides a breakdown.

Source of Website Referral

NB: You can see a breakdown of referral 'other' in the full report