Site Visits

What is this?
Getting out of the office and into the world of the people that you’re trying to understand is a central concept of human-centered design. Site visits get you to the place where policies turn into practices to see what’s working and what’s not.
 

When should I use this? 
Site visits should occur during your research phase to gather firsthand observations of how a policy is being implemented or the context in which a policy will be implemented in the future. 
 

More about this...
School visits are a common activity among education researchers, but site visits can also include other locations like homes, district offices, or state agencies. They’re critical to getting an unmediated perspective of what’s happening on the ground. This section of a longer document lays out some foundational considerations before and during a site visit. Use the “What, How, Why” Observation Tool to capture observations. Use methods in the next phase to make sense of your observations.