Abstract

(This is the corrected version) Co-operative systems are combinations of technology, people and organisations that facilitate the communication and co-ordination necessary for a group to work together effectively. The technology involved is often, but not necessarily, groupware / computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). The evaluation of such systems is highly difficult, especially because of the widely differing views and disciplines involved. This thesis suggests that this difficulty has partly been caused by attempts to find a single measure of ‘right ’ or ‘wrong ’ in evaluating these systems. Instead, it advocates evaluation as the facilitation of an organisational learning process, with learning outcomes for all stakeholders arising during the evaluation as much as from the evaluation report. Such evaluation cannot be confined to a single perspective and means of analysis – concerning technology, organisational structure or culture – as to do so ignores the inter-dependencies of the issues involved. To solve these problems, I have developed the Systemic Evaluation for Stakeholder Learning (SESL) methodology. The principles and practice of this methodology are presented here. It

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