PROVIDENCE — About 400 students and visitors came out on a rainy night at Rhode Island College to make a communal event of the presidential debate, with many staying late to participate in a formal evaluation of the political spectacle.

The college is a partner with the Commission on Presidential Debates, and after Senators John McCain and Barack Obama battled it out on stage, participants in the Debatewatch program broke into discussion groups at their tables and huddled with facilitators to prepare a report to the commission on how the debate was conducted and, potentially, to recommend improvements.

Their aim was to answer questions such as, “What did you learn about the issues that you did not know prior to the debate?” and “What do you still need to know about the candidates and the issues after this debate?”

Debatewatch is a 12-year-old program — RIC first participated in 2004 — designed to encourage people to watch presidential and vice-presidential debates and to provide feedback. Similar groups were assembled across the country in the same exercise, but RIC’s was the only statewide Debatewatch.

The participants assembled in the Donovan Dining Center, which was festooned with large clumps of red, white and blue balloons, hanging American flags and strings of tiny white lights, creating both a patriotic and festive air. The debate was projected onto two large screens at the front of the room.

Post-debate, a reporter buttonholed three people — a young person, a middle-aged person and an older person, all of whom happened to be Obama supporters — and asked their reaction.

Kaitlyn Samiagio, 20, of Westerly, said that she will vote for Obama but she disagrees with him on some issues and is vaguely disappointed with both candidates.

To Debbie Cardoza, 57, of Attleboro, McCain appeared cocky. With his open-mindedness, Obama is more likely to surround himself with advisers offering a variety of points of view, leading to better government, she suggested.

Paul Fitzgerald, 64, of Cranston, thought each debater acquitted himself well but that Obama did a better job of relating large-scale issues of foreign policy and national security to local concerns.

Before the debate, there was a wide-ranging political forum emceed by former ABC6 News reporter Jim Hummel that lasted for the better part of two hours.