Evaluation
Evaluation is a form of research designed to promote learning and inform decisions. It also provides accountability. It involves observing, measuring, and then comparing your findings to a set of agreed-upon criteria.
Understanding your “why” will shape the types of questions you ask about your project.
# Questions
A key question about the outcomes, impact and/or effectiveness of your project or program.
Categories:
- how to improve
- How can we improve?
- What is working and what’s not working?
- Which goals are being met?
- Who is benefiting?
- What are the most common participant reactions?
- Help you measure and compare
- What were the results?
- Were there unintended outcomes?
- What were the costs and benefits?
- Are there any lessons to be learned?
- Should we continue?
Effective questions:
- Address Stakeholders or user values, interest and concerns
- Relate to the purpose of the project and of evaluation
- Are worth answering and are import fro the project and beyond
- Are practical and feasable to answer with availble resources
# Indicators
Evaluation indicators reveal the specific type of data that needs to be collected to help you answer your evalution questions.
They take you evaluation questions and determine the specific type of response you’re aiming for.