Maker Corps 2015 Evaluation Report

Since 2012, the Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed) has worked with over 72 organizations to host their Maker Corps program. In 2015, 39 organizations participated with 72 Maker Corps Members.

The goals of the program are:
1. Support and train partner organizations to establish and develop making programs.
2. Diversify and expand the network and community of maker educators.

These goals speak to Maker Ed’s commitment to helping people and organizations grow their capacity to deliver maker programming in the ways that is most relevant to them. For individuals, that may mean gaining technical skills to compliment existing confidence as an educator. Institutions may be looking to meet the interest of their audiences with new programming. To achieve these goals, Maker Ed supports and trains sites and their participating staff through a number of resources, including an online discussion forum, recorded videos, a materials box, and ongoing personalized support. This report describes survey results from both Maker Corps Members and site staff, taken at the beginning of (June 2015) and the end of their service (August 2015). The responses are grouped into three themes that illustrate the strengths of the Maker Corps program: Diversity, Relevancy and Community.