Making Evaluation Accessible: A Workshop for Non-Evaluators

April 16, 2012 / 10:00- 3:00

Dale McCreedy, Ph.D. & Jessica Luke, Ph.D.

Museums, programs, exhibits, historic homes - all need good evaluations to identify impacts, to improve efforts, and provide evidence of success.  Good evaluations benefit from evaluators and practitioners working together, and talking the same language.  This workshop will address why evaluation is important, essential recommendations for project leaders and managers when considering evaluation, and considerations about how best to design a manageable evaluation plan.

This workshop will focus on what makes a “good” evaluation plan. Workshop leaders, one an evaluator and one a practitioner, will explore various dimensions of that including the ways in which a well-designed evaluation plan articulates meaningful evaluation questions or issues to drive the study; identifies appropriate measures, methods, and samples; and explains how the data will be analyzed in order to answer the driving questions or issues.  

No matter what the degree of engagement, it is important that, as critical stakeholders, we understand what goes into an evaluation plan and, more importantly, what makes for a quality evaluation plan. Learn the language of evaluation; learn about logic models, and why they are so critical to project planning and evaluation study development; critique examples of evaluation plans.  Please bring an evaluation topic or project to the workshop in order to gain practical experience in designing a manageable study.

Participants in this workshop will:

·      understand the basics of evaluation

·      learn about the key components that comprise an evaluation plan;

·      critique the strengths and weaknesses of an evaluation plan;

·      explore ways in which strong evaluation plans have influenced practice;

·       become familiar with the “ PI Guide to Managing Evaluation in Informal Science Education Projects  ” Produced by the Visitor Studies Association in partnership with the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education