The Bermuda Zoological Society has held an online workshop for non-governmental organisations that showed how to gather statistics to measure the success of academic programmes.

A BZS spokeswoman said the aim of the one-day virtual workshop was “to help establish relationships and collaborative networks among the participants, provide opportunities to learn as well as reflect on current practices, and to provide insight and support to others through brainstorming sessions”.

She added: “The ‘gallery walk’ component of the workshop provided opportunities for participants to share challenges they face in meeting their organisation’s goals.

“The subsequent collaborative brainstorm sessions allowed participants to give positive suggestions to other participants on what might help them meet their challenges in the future.”

The workshop was funded by the Centennial Foundation Committee and coordinated by the Inter Agency Committee for Children and Families.

Jamie Bacon, the BZS education officer, said: “To provide donors with the quantitative data they require, the BZS developed the generating academic success in science programme, which includes both a pre- and post-assessment.”

Dr Bacon added: “Results from the assessments provided numeric data to donors which revealed a marked improvement in student assessment scores after they completed the Gass programme.”

It is expected that the workshop will be the first of a series that will examine programme design, implementation, and evaluation.