EPALE Survey results: where are we at?

The EPALE community has participated in a survey which was launched in 32 languages at the beginning of this year.       We are grateful for the huge participation and the valuable suggestions collected: 990 participants have responded!

The survey explored five main areas:

• User demographics (professional role and country of origin)
• User awareness and fidelity (routes for finding out about the website, usage frequency, awareness and appreciation of latest contents)
• User motivations and needs (reasons for visiting EPALE, satisfaction with the website features, improvements needed)
• User experience (relevance of themes, interaction with the community, familiarity with and usability of the website features)
• Accessibility in different languages.

What are the main highlights of the Survey?

Events are the most popular route among the survey respondents for finding out about the platform (29%). The second most popular route was through social media (24%).

81% of EPALE users involved in the survey used the platform at least on a monthly basis.

Users that were aware of the new initiatives launched in 2020 ranged between 60%-75%, depending on each specific initiative. Serial initiatives that lasted throughout the year, such as EPALE interviews (75%), Resource kits (70%) and Community Stories (70%), were the ones that reached the highest number of respondents. Between 93%-96% of the respondents that were aware of the 2020 initiatives rated them as useful or very useful.

The three main reasons for visiting the site turns out to be: finding practical information relevant to their job (53%), latest sector news (45%) and information about sector events (40%). In addition, just over a third said they use the site mainly to access EU policy papers (38%, 327) and for networking opportunities (35%, 294). A slightly lower proportion reported that they visit the site to look for project partners (32%, 269), to access National policy papers (31%, 261) and for exchanging ideas and content with their peers (30%, 250).

The survey also shows that EPALE users are very happy with the different features of the platform.What would encourage users to use EPALE more often?

• More information in their language (38%)
• Easier website navigation (36%)
• Improved search function (32%)
• Supports and tutorials for uploading contents and using the website (30%)

Overall, the vast majority (97%) of EPALE users involved in the survey felt that the themes on the platform were appropriate and relevant. A total of 52% of EPALE users who participated in the survey reported that they had interacted with other EPALE community members through online discussions, Communities of Practice, commenting on blog posts, looking for partner search requests or by finding project partners. This activity is getting growing interest.What are the most familiar features to the participants? Finding relevant contents such as blog posts, news articles, resources and events (94%) and finding professional upskilling opportunities such as courses, MOOCs and OERs (64%).

Since we are about to launch the new EPALE website, we also wanted to explore the current usability. What present features are more easily used? Apart from logging into the website to access all the opportunities (82%), immediately followed by participating in online discussion (79%)… it’s finding relevant contents (76%) once again.There were generally high levels of satisfaction with the quantity (84%) and quality (91%) of the content in different language versions of EPALE.

Who are the participants?

A high proportion (65%) of the EPALE users involved in the survey are Adult learning staff (educators, teachers, trainers etc.), followed by project partnerships and academics, students and researchers. Let’s have a look at the participants’ roles.

       What do users like the most?

EPALE users seem to be largely satisfied with the different features of the platform. In details:88% (843) of the users involved in the survey rated the quality of information provided as “good”. Around four fifths of respondents rated the site speed as “good”, marking an increase in comparison to the previous years.  Also the multimedia elements and the layout of the website have been rated as “good”, marking an increase.Finding information relevant to their needs continues to be a feedback point for many. We are happy that the migration of the website on Drupal 8 planned for the next weeks will feature a general re-organization of content and an improved search functionality.  

                                There were generally high levels of satisfaction with the quantity and quality of the content on EPALE.The Survey has been a valuable tool to make us collect reasoned advices and feedback, and this will help us improve every day to make EPALE better and better.

Let's keep on growing together and fostering adult education!

If you are interested in deepening the results of the Survey, you can download the Report.