App for Social Action evaluation: phase 2 – 2024-2025 academic year

What is this project about?

■       The Institute for Employment Studies (IES), an independent research charity, has been commissioned by Apps for Good to evaluate their App for Social Action course.

■       The App for Social Action Course is a 7-session course that supports students in creating a community focused, social action app. The course was launched in the 2023/24 academic year.

■       The purpose of the overall evaluation is to understand how the new App for Social Action course is being delivered, explore teacher and student experiences of and views on the course, and investigate impacts for students and teachers.

What does phase two involve?

Phase two of the evaluation runs across the 2024-2025 academic year and includes surveys with students, online focus groups with teachers and, where possible, data collection around total numbers of children choosing to study Computer Science or a related subject at GCSE/National 4/5 level.

Surveys with students

There are two short online surveys for students to fill in – one before they begin the App for Social Action course and one at the end of course delivery. Please could you allocate time in the relevant sessions to ensure that students fill these in. The surveys take around 5 minutes to complete and this information is essential for the evaluation.

There are links to the surveys in the eWorkbook and you can also access these below:

■       Start of course survey: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/uy0jjz

■       End of course survey: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/py955l

 

The surveys will include questions about:

■       Computing and essential skills;

■       Knowledge about the societal benefits of technology;

■       Confidence using technology to shape their lives and the world around them;

■       Broader career ambitions;

■       Views and experiences of the App for Social Action course; and

■       Non-mandatory demographic questions on gender, ethnicity, free school meals, disability and SEN.

Students will also be asked to create an ID code so that we can match their responses across the surveys to see how responses have changed over the duration of the course. The surveys will include instructions for creating an ID code using a mix of letters and numbers from their first and last names, as well as their day of birth, e.g. ZEHU07. It will not be possible for the research team to identify any children from the ID codes. The research team will provide Apps for Good with anonymised versions of the survey data where we will replace the student-created IDs with completely new, unrelated and anonymous ID codes.

Online focus groups with teachers

During the Spring Term, we will conduct online focus groups with teachers delivering the course. The focus groups will last 60 minutes and we aim to include a mix of participants from different areas and types of school where possible.

Topics discussed during the focus groups will include:

■       Your experience of delivering the App for Social Action course, including views on the resources and support available;

■       What is working well and any challenges you are experiencing;

■       What could be improved; and

■       Any perceived outcomes or impacts of delivering the course for yourself, your school or for participating students

Data collection: GCSE/National decisions

If you are delivering the App for Social Action course with students who will be making their decision whether or not to take Computer Science or a similar subject (such as Creative iMedia, Digital Technology or IT/ICT) at GCSE or National 4/5, we would be grateful if your school could share data on the total number of students participating in the course who decide to study a computing subject or not. If possible, it would be useful to have these totals broken down by gender, ethnicity and Free School Meals status. Please note that we are not requesting data for individual students but aggregated totals for anonymous groups of students so there is no personal data being shared.

How will the data be used?

Surveys with students

Students’ survey data will be private and confidential. Survey responses will be collected on the Snap online survey platform where data is securely held and encrypted during transfer and storage. The student’s school, teachers and parents/carers will not be able to access their responses. The survey data will be anonymous as the research team will not know the identity of any participating students. Aggregated results from across all students in the survey will be included in the evaluation report for Apps for Good but no individual students will be identified. Any quotes or examples included in the reports will be anonymised so that it is not possible to identify the student, their school or anyone else.

The research team will only use the students’ survey data for the purpose of the evaluation. The research team will also create a fully anonymised version of the survey information (with new student IDs and edits to anonymise any open text responses so that it is not possible to identify any individuals or schools) for Apps for Good who will use this to inform development and delivery of the App for Social Action course, and anonymised quotes may be used in their reports, marketing or communications materials. Apps for Good may decide to make some or all of these reports freely available on their website. Apps for Good are also keen to ensure that the feedback your students provide is useful to your school, so may be able to provide an anonymous summary of your students' survey results and feedback to you at the end of the year. If this is something you’d be interested in receiving, please contact Apps for Good using the contact details given at the end of this notice.

The research team will securely destroy student personal data three months after the evaluation has been completed. The overall evaluation is expected to run until summer 2026. Apps for Good will keep the anonymous versions of the data but it will not be possible to identify individual students in this dataset. Both the research team and Apps for Good will make sure to store and process this information securely following the Data Protection Act 2018/GDPR.

Student participation in the survey is entirely voluntary. The data we collect is anonymous as the research team will not know the identity of any participating students.

Online focus groups with teachers

Data collected will be confidential and only the research team will have access to your focus group recording and notes. Your school and Apps for Good will not have access to these.

The research team may share some anonymised quotes and examples with Apps for Good as part of our report/feedback to them and for Apps for Good to use as part of their marketing or communications work. Anonymised quotes will be edited by the research team so that it will not be possible to identify individuals or schools. In some cases, we may also ask whether you are happy for a particular quote or example to be attributed to you and your school and used to promote the App for Social Action course.

The overall evaluation is expected to run until summer 2026 and quotes or examples from the focus group may be included in the final evaluation report. The purpose of the report is to inform development and delivery of the App for Social Action course but Apps for Good may decide to make some or all of these reports freely available on their website. As described above, any quotes or examples included in the reports would be anonymised unless you have given your consent for you and your school to be identified.

Participation in the focus groups is voluntary. Your personal data will be stored securely on the IES server and will only be accessible to the evaluation team. Three months after the end of the project, your personal data will be securely destroyed.

Data collection: GCSE/National decisions

As the data on decisions whether or not to take Computer Science or a similar subject (such as Creative iMedia, Digital Technology or IT/ICT) at GCSE or National 4/5 will be provided on an aggregated basis, i.e. giving overall totals for groups of students and not for individual students, then this is anonymous data. Similarly, where totals are broken down by gender, ethnicity and free school meals; this is still anonymous data because it is not linked to any individual students. Please note that there is no personal data being shared as part of this data collection exercise because the data is being provided as totals for groups of students and not at the level of individual students.

Processing of personal data

Apps for Good has determined that the lawful basis for processing your personal data is legitimate interests. Apps for Good is the data controller. IES is processing this data for the purposes of evaluating the App for Social Action course at the request of Apps for Good. For example, IES using your email address and name to invite you to communicate about the evaluation. Apps for Good will use the findings of this evaluation to further develop and improve this course and their wider materials or services. However, please note that IES will only be processing anonymous student data.

Who can I speak to about the research or my personal data?

If you or your students have questions about the evaluation, or you would like to remove the information you have provided, please contact: