A process (formative) evaluation of RAINN’s online hotline includes collecting information about the number of visitors, length of sessions, technical difficulties, types of situations discussed, types of services provided, and demographic information about visitors. In addition, qualitative information from Focus Groups provides information from volunteer staff about their perceptions of training, training needs, experience with use of the technology, and general feedback about the program.
Outcome (summative) evaluation includes visitors’, staffs’, and supervisors’ perceptions of the usefulness of the online hotline; user satisfaction with the services; and users’ intention to use services to which they were referred. Although improvements in visitors’ emotional well-being and perceived safety would also be valuable outcomes, the current RAINN model—which provides mostly one-time crisis intervention—affords little opportunity to gather these data.
Use the Excel or SPSS data files to develop and answer research questions based on the Visitor and Volunteer data.
Describe the limitations of the RAINN data. What questions cannot be answered from the available data? Can RAINN be considered successful given these limitations? Why or why not?
Provide a summary of the evaluation. Given the evaluation data, write a brief summary about the effectiveness of the online hotline and what can be done to improve it.