Qualitative Evaluations

Activity Diary

One of the rationales for using a diary method is that the student is being exposed to some particularly interesting experience where it would be important to obtain a picture of the changing impacts on his/her life. An example could be the introduction of a program that contrasts greatly with what the students have experienced before.

Research example

Jane was supervising students who were on a six months industry placement. She recognised that an end-of-placement evaluation was not tapping into the supposed richness of the student experience. She tried interviewing some of the students in the previous group but found that information was difficult to extract because there were many interesting and boring experiences over a six minths period.

Jane decided that an activity diary might be the way to go. She drew up a diary page based upon one page per entry with students using at least 15 diary pages during the industry period.

Students were asked to fill out a diary page at least every couple of weeks, preferable once a week. A diary page was based upon one day's activities.

The diary page was structured with the following sections:

What were the main things you did to-day?

Please comment on your feelings about these activities. Also comment on their value to your skills and knowledge development.

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