REMS -
Research Evidence Management System
Introduction
In 2005 the British Government published proposals for a
radical reform of the education system for 14-19 year olds
- the 14-19 Reform. The Qualifications & Curriculum
Development Agency (QCDA) is the public body tasked with
this redevelopment of the curriculum, qualifications and
their assessment. The Reforms are being introduced into
schools, colleges and training centres between 2008 and
2013. The work to achieve this is being undertaken by
strand teams within QCDA and a range of other Government
agencies. Each team is undertaking research, evaluation and
monitoring activities to ascertain the extent to which
their work is meeting the aims.
REMS is designed to make strategic use of the evidence
produced on the 14-19 Reform, to influence and inform
policy development and ensure it is evidence-based. NVivo
is used to store, classify and code reports relating to the
Reform. The evidence is analysed and trends and key
messages are reported to stakeholders.
A specification for the project describes
the goals and plan for the project.
Sources
REMS contains strategic objectives, policy documents,
monitoring, research, evaluation reports and commentary and
media articles, from both internal and external
stakeholders. Wherever possible the documents were imported
in their original format including graphs, tables and
diagrams.
Cases and attributes
There is a case for each source and attributes record information such as
the author, date and research rating.
Nodes and coding
The coding framework (part 1 & part 2) is designed so that each item
of evidence is coded to 4-6 nodes. As this is
secondary data coded by a team of coders a detailed manual describes the coding
process.
Queries
An analysis manual provides guidance on
how to access the REMS data. A report is produced each
quarter (eg Quarter 1) describing the current
content of REMS and emerging trends.