Analyze and Report

Congratulations - you made it through the focus groups! You're now two-thirds of the way through the entire process, so give yourselves a big pat on the back! Take a few moments to praise each other for all of the hard work you've done up to this point.

Try not to get too relaxed, though, because you've still got one major piece of work to do: analysis and report preparation. This is the big payoff section, where you discover if you indeed asked the right questions and got some valuable answers. Even more important, through analyzing and reporting on the student focus groups, you will discover what students really think and feel. You will use their responses to institute changes or validate existing processes, as well as influence others about the value of the student voice. Analysis and report writing are not difficult, but they do require some pretty serious reflection and consideration. This final section of the Toolkit (and you thought it would never end!) will guide your analysis team members through the basics and will provide suggestions based on our experiences over the years.

1. Form an analysis team.
2. Produce a record of the focus groups and draft notes.
3. Hold a facilitator debriefing session.
4. Analyze the focus groups.
5. Prepare a report.
6. Reconvene the entire original work team.
7. Release the report!
8. Hold a final work team meeting.
9. Put the results to work.

Next: Form an analysis team.