NDIA is thrilled to announce the launch of the Digital Inclusion Impact Aggregator today at the Digital Access Research Forum in Kansas City! The Digital Inclusion Impact Aggregator is a comprehensive suite of resources for evaluating programs across an entire digital inclusion ecosystem, be it at the community, state, or even national level. Ecosystem-wide program evaluation is essential for assessing the cumulative impacts of digital inclusion strategies and goals across multiple programs and organizations.
NDIA developed this resource to address the lack of an evaluation tool that covers entire digital inclusion ecosystems and the need for greater standardization of metrics across states and communities. To address these gaps, NDIA, Dr. Colin Rhinesmith, and Merit Network set out to build upon the existing Digital Opportunities Compass and develop guidance and resources for states, territories, and local communities to benchmark, measure, and assess their digital equity initiatives. The team worked with a pilot cohort of eight states—Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and West Virginia—to develop the tool.
The Digital Inclusion Impact Aggregator allows users to gather data and measure impacts for distinct strategies, and then aggregate that data to measurable objectives and the overall ecosystem. It is also modular and scalable, which allows users to customize its components for their own context and priorities. This enables customized measurement, evaluation, and reporting on a broad scale to funders, state and local leaders, policymakers, and partners. Because the tool measures aggregate data across programs and strategies, it can benefit anyone interested in comprehensively evaluating their digital inclusion ecosystem.
The Digital Inclusion Impact Aggregator consists of three distinct components:
- An Evaluation Framework made up of a series of logic models
- An Impact Evaluation Database
- A Data Collection Guide
Visit the Digital Inclusion Impact Aggregator webpage to learn more about the tool, access the three components, and learn how to use them.
