Small wins: a strategy for developing evidence for a student learning assistance program (LAP) unit through formative evaluation

Small wins: a strategy for developing evidence for a student learning assistance program (LAP) unit through formative evaluation

This paper discusses the strategy a learning assistance program (LAP) based on peer learning is following to create an evidence-based decision-making environment and quality assurance process. Often, the emphasis is in creating a useful database and integrating it to other existing databases in order to focus on summative decisions about a program’s or unit’s success, merit or worth; however, what happens if the database is being systematized for the first time from what are existing disparate and informal sources of data? More to the point, what happens to the ability to navigate the program through continuous improvement? Presented is a formative evaluation strategy based on Weick’s (1984) notion of ‘small wins’ that allows data-driven continuous improvement monitoring process to help determine program efforts and that, in the longer term once the database is completed, can lead to an additional source of summative evaluation data.