2 Elements and methods
The study comprised two elements during which diffe - rent methods were applied. The backdrop of the project was a document detail - ing the transformational requirements, opportunities and challenges for the methods applied in internatio - nal youth work that was drawn up following a debate among around 90 representatives of the international youth work during an online symposium (Brüggen et al. 2021). The project then concentrated on the extent to which these identified opportunities and challenges are reflected in current digital practice and how this may influence the adaptation of existing quality criteria. The project also took account of any open questions that had come from partner organisations. This part of the study was dealt with in two parts. Element I: First, the researchers undertook a sys - tematic analysis of reports on digital international youth work projects that were run in 2020 and had used a variety of digital elements. Both purely online projects, but also blended and hybrid projects were in scope (for an explanation of these terms, see below). The 43 ana - lysed project reports were submitted by the specialist and funding agencies, the partner organisations of the project. 36 projects involved young people, the other seven were for experts. Element II: During this phase the researchers un- dertook a qualitative evaluation of ongoing projects. Again, they assessed to what extent the identified theoretical opportunities and challenges manifested in practice and what factors were at play. The team also focused on aspects for which element I had not produ - ced sufficient (or sufficiently clear) data. Nine projects were evaluated in depth during this part of the study. The researchers used a variety of methodologies that allowed them to triangulate the data and hence exa - mine it from a number of perspectives. This phase ran from November 2021 to July 2022. For element II, each evaluated project was visited online by observers at least once, and structured one-on-one interviews with experts were conducted online. These interviews focused on the opportunities and challenges the experts had experienced during the online visit;
they were also asked to share their thoughts on more general issues around digital international youth work, such as the ideal minimum length of a project. Online group interviews were conducted with the young people who had participated in the observed online sessions; they were asked to share how they had experienced the activity. They were also questioned on the advantages and drawbacks of the online and offline elements of international youth work projects. During offline group interviews, the young participants were in - vited to design their “ideal” digital international project. The data were analysed according to a number of fo - cus points that were selected based on the opportu - nities and challenges identified during the preceding expert symposium. More focus points were added over the course of the project. This exercise resulted in the following eight areas of evaluation, based on which the empirical material was analysed: 3. Communication and interaction 4. Participants’ skills and preparation 5. Team members’ skills and training 6. Cooperation with partner organisations 7. Factors relevant to planning, implementation and achievement of objectives 8. Team leaders‘ evaluation concerning the future of IYW projects with digital elements 1. Digital international youth work formats 2. Access and participation Additional data for analysis came from the minutes taken during internal team reflection meetings for two of the nine projects. These had been initiated by the project partner IJAB as part of IJAB’s project “Living Labs: Internationale Begegnungsorte für Toleranz” and received special attention from the research team. Fur - ther information came in the shape of summary reports of the DIY2 Labs – a series of digital events run by IJAB during which international youth work experts together tried out new methods and tools and discussed their respective experiences.
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