| dc.description.abstract | Since the rise of ICTs, also the role ICTs play in supporting development initiatives has grown. Since then, the term ICT4D has been adapted in the field of development programs which are IT-based. This study focuses on the domain of ICT4D in the educational domain. In developing countries there exists a large digital divide between persons that have access to ICTs and information, and individuals that do not. Next to accessibility issues, there is often a lack of skill to handle with these ICTs in the most optimal way. In order to support the development of education in these developing countries, many western organisations made attempts to implement ICT projects. However, in order to confirm if an educational development project has an impact on its target community, an evaluation must be performed in the form of an impact assessment. It is discussed that there are too few studies that focus on the evaluation of ICT4D projects. Performing an impact assessment is a non-trivial process. Hence, a method is required. In order to develop a method that seeks to achieve a wide applicability and a means to anticipate to novel developments, situational method engineering can be applied. Therefore, this study proposes a situational method for the performance of an impact assessment on ICT4D programs in the field of education in order to contribute to the current landscape of evaluation methods. The proposed impact assessment method is situational, meaning that the method is adaptable to a specific development project in the domain of education. This is done by selecting relevant method fragments. Each method fragment consists of a set of metrics which are used as input for the impact evaluation. The benefit of this is that the method is generalisable to other educational development projects. The proposed impact assessment method is validated through focus groups. After that, the method is implemented in a real-world development context in West-Africa in the form of a pilot study. Based on the implementation, results from the pilot study are drafted and the treatment is evaluated upon. | |
