CUREE undertook for QIA an evaluation to assess the costs and benefits to the further education system of developing and maintaining the Excellence Gateway (a web-based portal plus a set of supporting resources) relative to the services it replaced. In addition to an assessment of the actual cost of introducing the Gateway, QIA also wanted to establish:
- the extent to which the Excellence Gateway was used; and
- the extent to which users were interacting with the resources and with each other: the perceived benefits for users and their organisations.
The evaluation involved an analysis of website statistics and documentary evidence, an on-line survey and analysis and a series of structured telephone interviews.