
Articles
Explore our latest articles, developed by our team of evaluators and special guests, grounded in real-world experience to support your evaluation practice—whether you're a beginner or an expert.
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New Template: Telephone Survey Introduction
The Telephone Survey Introduction Template is a comprehensive script designed to guide surveyors when initiating contact with participants for telephone surveys. It provides a structured framework for addressing various scenarios and ensures a professional and respectful approach to data collection.
Survey Design Part 1: Planning For Your Survey – A Review Of Designing Quality Survey Questions (2019) By Robinson And Firth-Leonard
The article discusses the book "Designing Quality Survey Questions" by Robinson and Leonard, offering guidance for beginners in survey design. It highlights understanding survey purpose, tool suitability, respondent characteristics, and cultural context, serving as a useful resource for both new and experienced survey designers. Part 2 will delve into crafting quality survey questions.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Photovoice
While traditional data collection methods like surveys, interviews, focus groups, and document reviews are well-known in evaluation, there are also innovative approaches like participatory and arts-based methods. One such method is Photovoice. While it might be daunting to embrace new techniques, it's important to recognize the value of methods like Photovoice in expanding our toolkit and enhancing evaluation practices.
New Infographic: 10 Tips For Running A Focus Group
By leveraging group dynamics and interactions, focus groups provide a platform for participants to build on ideas, challenge assumptions, and generate new insights. In this article, we present our top tips for running successful focus groups that are efficient and gather quality data.
SWOT Analysis: What Is It And How Do I Use It?
A SWOT is a tool commonly used at the beginning of a new venture or as part of a new strategic planning process. A SWOT in evaluation could be used as a data collection tool or to present evaluation findings and create recommendations. This article outlines what a SWOT analysis is and how to complete one.
5 Tips For Ensuring Interviewer Safety
In this article, we highlight the importance of ensuring interviewer safety to make the interview experience effective for collecting data and a positive experience for everyone involved!
Questions To Get You Thinking About Your Data
Data are only useful when used! They do no good buried in reports, sitting on shelves (or shared drives) hidden away. Data, particularly data from an evaluation, are begging to be discussed, contemplated, and put into action! This article discusses some ways to make sure your data are used.
Your Information Will Be Kept Confidential: Confidentiality And Anonymity In Evaluation
“Confidential” and “anonymous” are words we use quite a bit in the evaluation world. But do you know what they actually mean? This article explores some of these concepts and provides some tips on how to maintain confidentiality.
New Checklist: Information Request Checklist
Eval Academy just released a new checklist for anyone who’s about to start a new evaluation project. Use this checklist to make sure you’re gathering the information necessary to support your evaluation endeavour. This checklist can act as a support tool for you to make sure you have the context you need when starting an evaluation.
New Tip Sheet: Tips For Conducting Interviews
Eval Academy just released a new tip sheet for Conducting Interviews. If you will be conducting interviews in your evaluation, then this tip sheet is for you! Whether you’re new to the process or have conducted interviews before, this tip sheet provides a good overview and refresher to make your next interview experience a great one.
What You Need To Know About Member Checking
While member checking is commonly used in qualitative research, it’s less commonly used in evaluation and we think that should change! In this article, we’ll review what member checking is and why, when, and how you should use it.
Sampling And Recruitment 101
You’ve got your evaluation plan; you’ve developed your data collection tools and you’re ready to go live with collecting the data you need to answer your evaluation questions. Step 1: Identify your sample. Step 2. Recruitment. But how do you get participants to take part in the data collection process?
Top Tips For Using A Real-Time Interpreter In Interviews And Focus Groups
In this article, we share our top tips for running an interview or focus group using a real-time interpreter & reflect on a recent online focus group I completed that utilized an Arabic interpreter.
New Template: Interview Tracking Log
Eval Academy just released a new template, “Interview Tracking Log.” This template is available as a Word document as well as an Excel file! This Interview Tracking Log can be used by anyone who will be completing interviews to collect qualitative data.
Developmental Evaluation: An Overview
Recently, we’ve had several clients ask us about Developmental Evaluation (DE) including what it is and how it’s done. So we’ve pulled together a few main points about DE in this article.
Sampling Bias: Identifying And Avoiding Bias In Data Collection
Bias in evaluation is inevitable. Reflection helps us to identify our bias and when we do, it is necessary to identify sources of bias in our processes, eliminate which bias we can, and acknowledge which bias we cannot.
Developing A Logic Model - Check Out Our Templates!
Eval Academy has just released a new free template to help you Develop a Logic Model.
Incentives For Participation In Evaluation
In this article, we discuss different incentives for participation, explore the biases that offering an incentive can introduce, and guide you in deciding whether to offer an incentive, including what form and value that incentive should be.
How Do I Use The Kirkpatrick Model In Evaluation?
Kirkpatrick is probably one of those names/methods you’ve heard about in your evaluation career, but have you ever used it? In this article, we explain how to use the Kirkpatrick model in your evaluation planning, implementation, and reporting.
How To Complete An Environmental Scan: Avoiding The Rabbit Holes
This article is aimed at those who are new to environmental scanning and are looking for new ways to support program planning and improvement.