Written by Celestine Atieno, Learning and Evaluation Officer

In the just-concluded Dignitas Leadership Academies, the team made use of real-time data in powerful ways.  Real-time data, shared in daily briefings by our Learning and Evaluation team was used to ensure the effectiveness of activities, securing impact for learners who need it the most.

Through the data, we were able to make instant adjustments to various aspects of the training based on the feedback received from school leaders.  For instance, we were able to learn that some school leaders felt left out during the whole group discussions and as a result, we were able to instantly adjust and embrace the use of smaller breakout rooms where all school leaders got an opportunity to share their insights and even lead the discussions on their own. The school leaders appreciated the adjustments and one even stated in the session evaluation forms “Almost everyone was given a chance to participate today!”

The data also gave us insights into the level of knowledge gained in each session and through this we were able to move to new sessions with confidence knowing the objectives of the previous sessions were well achieved, which was our ultimate goal during the facilitation. Through this we were also able to gauge the quality and relevance of the topics we were facilitating and as a result, we kept on track and discovered different methodologies that were preferred by the school leaders.

Consequently, Dignitas Leadership Coaches were able to respond to school leaders’ feedback effectively, and in a timely manner. since we were able to get school leaders’ feedback on a daily basis, and we managed to implement the feedback almost immediately so as to improve the learning experience.

For instance, the school leaders shared that they needed more time during the group discussions and this clearly helped us to realize that the time allocated for the group discussion was not enough, and therefore we deliberately adjusted this and checked into the different discussion rooms to ensure we allowed enough time for discussions to take place. Few school leaders also mentioned that the pace of content delivery was quite fast and hence requested the facilitators to consider their pace. As a result, we adjusted the pace of content delivery and even explained some of the content in Kiswahili to ensure we move at the same pace with all school Leaders.

A school Leader appreciated the Dignitas team by stating “Dignitas has wonderful facilitators who are actually role models; very motivating, soft on learners, and very patient with learners.”

Dignitas is currently working on organisation-wide data visualization dashboards.  This will be an exciting development that will ensure the whole team is consistently making evidence based decisions, in the best interest of learners and their school communities.