Response to RFP – Evaluation Proposal

Submitted to Far West Labs

Submitted by Cork and Sea Consulting, LLC

Introduction

Cork and Sea Consulting is pleased to submit this proposal to evaluate the marketing and sale of Far West Labs’ products. Over the course of this project, we will determine whether its in the best interests of Far West Labs to market DIP to school administrators and graduate students, and what the best method for doing that would be.

Program Description

Far West Labs has developed a training package called “Determining Instructional Purposes” (DIP) that they are interested in marketing to school administrators and graduate students. The package consists of “a coordinator’s handbook and 3 training units:

1. Setting Goals2. Analyzing Problems3. Deriving Objectives”

While particular details about DIP are not given in the information we currently have on hand, the topics covered are pretty self-explanatory and widely useful. Cork and Sea Consulting, LLC has confidence in this ability to appeal to an education demographic, and we are eager to help Far West Labs determine if it is worth marketing this product to educators.

Evaluation Method

This evaluation will be completed in an effort to determine how best to market Far West Labs’ training materials to educational institutions, and specifically to administrators and graduate students. For instance, should they advertise that the product is fun or should they provide professional development credits for employees that attend? Advertising DIP as a professional development (PD) opportunity might also help to offset the cost of the program, as interested employees may need to pay for the PD credit.

Once we have completed our evaluation of DIP, we will compose a complete evaluation report, to be distributed to stakeholders. These people will include Far West Labs and school administrators that have already expressed an interest in DIP. Cork and Sea Consulting, LLC will also retain a copy for their records.

In order to evaluate this program, we will conduct surveys of local school administrators, teachers, and graduate students. The survey will consist of 10-15 Leikert-Scale questions that will ask whether these people are interested in this product, what they might use it for and whether the price point is reasonable for them.

Once the surveys are complete, the team will assemble and analyze the collected data using excel. We would plan on calculating basic values such as the mean and standard deviation. We might also do some additional testing, based on the sample size. This information would also be displayed in a graphical format, in order accommodate people with a more visual style.

In addition to data analysis, Cork and Sea Consulting, LLC plans to interview stakeholders and find out what their desires are for an appropriate training solution. This information will provide a different slant that couldn’t be obtained with surveys. Once the interview are complete, they will be summarized and the information will be analyzed as objectively as possible.

In an effort to provide as accurate and comprehensive an evaluation as possible, Cork and Sea Consulting, LLC (CS) will participate in demonstrations of the DIP program created by Far West Labs. The first of these demonstrations will be solely for CS, so that we can fill in any knowledge gaps that we have concerning DIP, as well as be able to better formulate interview questions that we are preparing for stakeholders.

The second time we have a demonstration run-through with Far West Labs and DIP, we will also include the other stakeholders in the project – the school administrators and graduate students that will be trained in the administration of DIP. This will help them be more informed as they head into interviews with CS.

Task Schedule

Flight to Boise and intial meeting with Far West Labs, located in Boise. (November 5, 2012)

Demonstration run-through of DIP with Far West Labs, in order to be better informed about the product. (November 6, 2012)

Develop online survey(s) for delivery to school administrators and graduate students. (Implemented by November 15, 2012)

Email or post online surveys, in order to receive feedback from school administrators and graduate students. (Implemented by November 15, 2012)

Analyze data collected from surveys submitted to school administrators and graduate students using basic data analysis techniques and tools. (Collect data on November 23, 2012)

Demonstration Run-through of DIP with other stakeholders, including school administrators and graduate students, so that they are better informed as we conduct interviews with them. (November 18, 2012)

Interview stakeholders, including personnel at Far West Labs, school administrators, and current graduate students. (Ongoing throughout November – have interviews wrapped up by November 23, 2012)

Summarize information from interviews conducted with personnel at Far West Labs, school administrators and current graduate students. (Summary and any data analysis completed by December 3, 2012)

Write final evaluation report and submit to school administrators and Far West Labs. (Completed by December 15, 2012)

Project Personnel

Sarah Miller is the founder and managing partner of Cork and Sea Consulting, LLC. She worked in distance learning for well over a decade, and has an MBA from Portland State University. In addition to being a savvy businesswoman, Sarah’s experience working with community colleges in the state of Oregon gives her added insight into a project aimed at the education sector.

Bernadette Peters has been with us for almost a decade. She is our lead evaluator and has acted in this capacity on no fewer than 13 occasions. Bernadette is familiar with formative and summative evaluations, and is an experiences instructional designer. This gives her further insight into working with education professionals.

Tyler Gist is our training specialist and has a bevy of experiences under his belt in terms of instructional design, training facilitation, and group presentation. Tyler will be conducting interviews with the school administrators, Far West Labs, and graduate students, as well as presenting the final evaluation report to all project stakeholders.

Budget

Personnel Professional Salaries Sarah Miller (45 days @ $250 per day) $11,250 Bernadette Peters (45days @ $250 per day) $11,250 Tyler Gist (45 days @ $180 per day) $8,100 TOTAL PERSONNEL $30,600 $30,600

Travel and Per Diem One 4-day Round-Trip (Portland to Boise, 2 People) $1,000 Estimated Misc. Mileage (1000 miles @ $0.40 per mile) $400 Two Site Visits (at $75 estimated travel) $150 TOTAL TRAVEL AND PER DIEM $1,550 $1,550

Communications Email/ Web $0 Telephone (Est. average of $50 per month for 6 months) $300 Postage $50 TOTAL COMMUNICATIONS $350 $350

Supplies, Materials and Photocopying Supplies and Photocopying $150 Materials (includes 3 sets of training materials at $24.95 and 3 handbooks for coordinators at $4.95)

$74.85$14.85

TOTAL SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS $239.70 $239.70

TOTAL BUDGET $32,739.7 $32,739.7