Section 5
How can you ask the right questions of communities?
What questions should I ask and how should I ask them, in order to capture GSO outcomes?
Defining questions to capture GSO outcomes can be tricky because GSO outcomes are about communities, but the evidence is captured through the experiences of individuals, not groups.
The North East Regional Museums Hub tool will help you to break down the GSO second tier outcomes into a third tier of outcomes, which are much more specific and will help you to think about what participants would say or experience or your outcome has been achieved. The North East Regional Museums Hub tool and Resource 5.1, Question bank also give you a selection of sample questions that you could use during evaluation.
Remember key factors in measuring a social outcome effectively are:
- Clearly identifying the core purpose / outcome of your activity
- Developing an evaluative question to reflect this core purpose by thinking about what participants and staff would do, think and say if the project outcome has been met.
- Trying to think of questions that are open (do not invite a yes / no answer) and that give respondents scope to say what is important to them.
Use the following resources to practice framing the right questions:
Resource 5.1, Question Bank, gives some example of possible questions that will elicit responses to each of the GSOs.
Resource 5.2, Framing Questions, uses quotes from real projects in the UK to help you to frame effective questions.