Formative evaluation of a family life education Web site

Abstract

Hundreds of family life education Web sites are available on the Internet, allowing individuals and families unprecedented access to family life education information. Evaluation is critical to ensuring the quality of and improving these Web sites; yet, few Web site evaluations have been conducted. We formatively evaluated a new family life education Web site, Forever Families (www.foreverfamilies.net), assessing site use with Web-based software and receiving visitor feedback through an online survey. Findings revealed that the site was highly used by individuals throughout the world, that the site was viewed positively and had a positive impact on users, and that site ratings did not substantially vary by user characteristics. Users provided many helpful suggestions for improvement.