Introduction
Reflecting on the use of Koboca as a tool to gather insight within schools and failing to achieve the desired outcome.
What happened?
The Platform.
Three years ago, post Covid-19 pandemic, we invested in an online surveying platform, Koboca. The intention was to be able to gather health and activity information from schools and their pupils on a regular basis whilst also being able to support the SGO network in gathering youth voice to inform their delivery. In addition to the survey platform there is an online competition portal which evolved following the success of virtual competitions during the pandemic.
We saw great potential in this platform for both elements. The direction of travel the organisation was going, this could/would be an important tool for the Children & Young People team to collect vital insight to help structure the support we could offer. The fact that it is designed by SGOs for the use by SGOs and partners means it is well thought through and easy to use for this specific purpose.
Each year (September) the Koboca team release the national survey. In essence this is a simple version of the Active Lives survey. We promoted this and encouraged schools to complete it so they can see base line data and understand which children want to do which activities across the school year. Thus, helping the schools shape an offer that reflects the wants of their children.
Overall, the tool can not be faulted. Its design, ease of use and flexibility means it lends itself perfectly for gathering the relevant information across the partnership.
What we did.
We paid for this whole platform for all schools, all SGOs and ourselves, removing the financial burden for schools. We promoted Koboca regularly at conferences, through newsletters and tried to embed its use in School Games. We also challenged SGOs to incorporate its use in the innovation projects, to make this survey tool the go to for youth voice, insight, and review/evaluation. We also looked to include its use in CAS as well.
There were many avenues explored to try to get this tool embedded.
We also offered and provided training for teachers to get to grips with the tool. We provided how to guides with help from Koboca in the form of YouTube videos, showing how to get the most from the surveys.
Who used it?
Ultimately there was very little uptake year on year. Schools didn’t complete the surveys that were sent to them. Leaving us with very few completions of the national surveys, limited to no use of the competition platform, and therefore no real insight into how and what schools and their children are doing or want.
SGOs have used it from time to time to gather basic feedback or baseline data for specific projects. This has helped them inform their decisions on projects like the Innovations Fund Projects.
What were the biggest challenges?
Getting schools signed up to use it has been an ongoing challenge. Whether that is because they don’t want to engage, don’t understand the platform or its importance is unknown. The SGOs have probed repeatedly with their schools to get as many signed up as possible and we have achieved a good number, but these sign ups have not progressed to users.
Teachers changing roles or schools and getting locked out of the platform has been an ongoing challenge. Koboca, to be fair to them, have done everything they can to make sure these situations are resolved quickly and effectively. But it takes time, and time is one thing schools don’t have. This has caused frustration with teachers. Whether this has led to discontinuing use I am not sure.
Promoting the use has been difficult. In terms of reaching the right people and having the desired effect.
The risk of overburdening the schools with survey after survey is real. Post Covid, schools, and everyone, were asked to complete surveys time and time again. There came a point where surveys were more of a chore than seen as a tool to gather insight. So, trying to get schools to complete surveys regularly became an ethical challenge as well.
What did we learn?
Schools don’t have the time or don’t make the time to use it. During interviews with schools that have used the platform they state that it is time consuming and struggle to fit it into their day.
There clearly isn’t the value put on this from schools like we have. Understanding of why and what can be achieved is not there with the schools. Therefore, they simply can’t and don’t value it and wont set time aside to complete and use the data that would be available.
People are surveyed out. We are asking schools to complete the Koboca surveys, gather insight and youth voice as well as complete the Active Lives Survey. It’s too much and we are at risk of spoiling good working relationships.
What could have been done differently?
We could have created more Tees Valley specific videos of how to use it, why to use it. Using people that the teachers and schools know and recognise may have had more impact on uptake. Perhaps there wasn’t the element of trust from the Koboca team that the relationships we have built as a CYP network would have.
Co-design a plan with schools and teachers to role out a schedule of surveys to gather insight on their timelines/timeframes so they are invested in it more. This approach would be more empathetic to their needs, commitments and could have led to more buy in.
Finally.
At the latest SGO meeting we decided not to renew the subscription with Koboca for the school year 2024/25. We will evaluate the impact this has on schools, school games and our work to determine whether to revisit the platform in the future. The investment committed previously will be redistributed to support the delivery of more SEND and innovative learning approaches to Active 60.
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