A screening tool for considering the adoption of new programs, practices and products

Description

The tool was created to provide criteria to screen new ideas, programs, practices, products and innovations. The tool is based on the literature available regarding dissemination, diffusion, adoption and implementation of innovations in education and related disciplines.

The tool comprises 22 pairs of questions (44 questions in total) across the following 10 topic areas:

1. Claims
2. Effectiveness
3. Relative advantage
4. History of use
5. Minimum standards for replication
6. Complexity and convenience
7. Compatibility
8. Assistance with implementation
9. Costs
10. Payoff

There are 22 pairs of questions across each of the 10 topic areas listed above. The paired questions are framed from the points of view of "developer" and the point of view of the "user" - leading to 44 questions in total. The questions differ, whether they are framed from the "developer" or the "user" point of view. In the tool, the paired questions appear under the columns of "ask the developer" and "ask yourself."

The tool ends with an area for concluding remarks or recommendations about whether the program, practice or product is judged to be "worthy" or "unworthy" of further examination by way of demonstration, trial use, adaptation, or adoption. The tool also offers a space for users to specify the reasons for their final decision.

Steps for Using Method/Tool

The tool provides structural and contextual questions regarding the potential program, practice or product under consideration and asks about the user's situation. For example, consider the implementaion of a program or intervention that has shown effectiveness in the published literature; consider the implementation of a practice or program taken from a geographically different area then your own; or consider the implementation of a practice or program that has demonstrated benefit in one target audience and you are thinking about implementing the practice or program in a different but closely related target audience.

By answering questions from the perspective of the "developer" as well as from the perspective of the "user", the tool then leads the user to "rate the match" across the previous listed 10 topic areas. A higher score, (from 1 to 5) is favourable. A score of 5 indicates a good match and a score of 1 indicates no match. The score between 1 and 5 is a rating of the relative match between the innovation ("developer") and the context for which the potential program, practice or product is being considered ("user").