aes19 International Evaluation Conference

Janice Smith (Charles Sturt University), Shaarn Hayward (Charles Sturt University), Suellen Priest (Charles Sturt University), Christine Lindsay (Charles Sturt University)

The Indigenous Academic Success Program at Charles Sturt University offers a suite of academic services to Indigenous students to improve aspiration, retention, and success. The program has supported over 730 students enrolled across Charles Sturt University courses since its conception in 2016 and is largely comprised of Indigenous staff, who oversee the planning, evaluation, implementation, reporting, and improvement of the program.

The program is deeply embedded within the Indigenous community, with six of the seven permanent staff currently employed in the program identifying as Indigenous, and representing ten different Indigenous nations or language groups. Evaluative practices have been applied throughout program setup and delivery, through the use of program logics, quantitative and qualitative methodologies. A key evaluation method is the use of interviews to gather feedback from students who are using, have used, or been offered access to the service.

This presentation unpacks the program's evaluation process and design, detailing the ways the programs annual evaluation report determines the progress, outcomes, and development of the program in consideration of the student community the program works with. It will also consider how the evaluation of both participants and those invited to participate who did not take up the offer of support has been conducted in a way that provides a safe and effective mechanism for Indigenous participants to participate. Feedback from students at all levels of engagement is positioned as central to understanding the program's progress and success, and this presentation will look at how the evaluation data has been used to measure the program's progress in reaching outcomes and inform its improvements and future direction.