The curriculum is being evaluated in the three pioneer universities using a 'before and after' design.  The outcomes being measured are:

• Students' confidence in using quantitative research methods.  (9 questions.  Example: On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you that you can compare the findings from two or more quantitative research studies of the outcomes of a social work intervention and present your conclusions in an assignment.)
• Knowledge of basis statistics (8 Multiple Choice Questions)
• Students' attitudes to statistics in social work and social work education (3 questions).

We are also collecting information on the students' backgrounds and qualifications in maths and statistics.

Students are invited to complete the questionnaire, either online or on paper, at the start of the programme and again when the use of MSWC materials has ceased.

Some preliminary findings on outcomes are being presented at the JSWEC conference on 25 July 2014.

Some of the 'roll out' universities have now joined the evaluation and have collected baseline data.

An important finding of the contextual evaluation is that universities have chosen to use the MSWC curriculum materials in a variety of ways: while some have used them as the basis for a weekly 10-session course, others have integrated them into two or more existing courses run over two years.

New adopters of MSWC materials are very welcome to take part in the evaluation from September 2014.   The online log-in or a pdf of the questionnaires are available from John Carpenter at Bristol University.  Once your students have submitted their post course (T2) data, we can provide you with an analysis of the outcomes (T2 – T1 differences). We will also send you a draft report of the overall findings in 2016.

Please email John at j.s.w.carpenter@bristol.ac.uk if you'd like to take part.