Number/percentage of the intended users adapting a KM output

Indicator Number: 
32

Category: 

Logic Model Component: 

Data Type(s): 
Count, proportion
Short Definition: 

Measures how many intended users adapt or alter a KM output to suit the user’s context

Definition and Explanation (Long): 

This indicator measures how many intended users adapt or alter a KM output to suit the user’s context.

“Adaptation” means the original KM output has been altered to suit the context of a specific set of users. Adaptation might entail translation (see indicator 33), simply changing terminology to locally used phrasing, or modifying artwork to depict a specific people or culture It could also involve changing the KM output to take into account local policy, resource availability, and cultural norms. Adaptations also can include transfer to another medium, modules for training, abridgments, and new, expanded, or updated editions, when these actions are taken by organizations or people other than the original producer of the KM output.

Data Requirements: 

Quantitative data from user self-reporting regarding adaptation, including identification of the KM output adapted; the purpose, extent, and nature of the adaptation; and the end results or outputs from adaptation, if known.

Data Sources: 

User surveys (print, online, email, telephone), requests for permission to adapt the output, requests for technical assistance with adaptation, requests for funding to make changes and disseminate the revised product

Frequency of Data Collection: 
Semiannually
Purpose: 
This indicator gauges the extended life and increased relevance that an information resource may gain when adapted to meet local needs. In fact, research shows that guidelines, for example, are more effective when they are adapted to account for local circumstances (NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, 1999).
Issues and Challenges: 
When adaptations are undertaken independent of the original producer, they become evidence of the adaptors’ judgment that the output will be useful enough in their setting to merit the effort and cost involved in adaptation and production. While documenting adaptations is useful, it is not possible to know if the number of adaptations is accurate, as a user may adapt a publication without notifying the original authors, publisher, or developers.
Sample Topics and Questions for Data Collection Instruments: 

Please indicate if you have adapted information from the [Web product] as follows. (Check all that apply.)
o I have translated information from English into a local language.
o I have adapted information to better fit the context I work in.
o I have adapted complex information to make it simpler to use.
o I have used content that I have adapted, or that has been adapted by others.

Please give an example of how you have translated or adapted specific information from the [Web product] and used it in your work. (Open-ended.)

Indicator Snapshots: 

A 2017 paper evaluating MSH's internal Technical Exchange Networks (TENs) documented a 14 percentage point increase in intended users adapting or translating technical content sent through the communities of practice. The indicators was adapted to collapse adaptation and translation.

Pages in the Guide: 
51

Published Year: 

  • 2013
Last Updated Date: 
Wednesday, September 6, 2017