An Evaluation of the “Introduction to Procurement” Course Offered by the National Transit Institute
Robert B. Noland, Nicholas J. Klein, Marc D. Weiner, and Orin Puniello, 43 pages. December 2014.
An evaluation was conducted of the National Transit Institute’s course “Orientation to Transit Procurement.” This course is designed to provide Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grantees an overview of regulations and best-practices related to the procurement process. The evaluation was composed of two primary components. First, an email survey of individuals who have taken the course over the past five years was conducted. The objective was to understand how agency staff have made changes in procurement practices in response to knowledge learned from the course. In addition, respondents were given the opportunity to answer a variety of open-ended questions on various features of the course and suggestions for improvements. A small group of respondents were contacted for follow up telephone interviews in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of any negative and positive issues associated with the course, as well as additional insights into changes in procurement practices. Finally, this initial course evaluation serves as a template for future evaluations and recommendations are made for how to proceed with these.