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The Evaluation Design Toolkit
Make Confident Evaluation Design Decisions.
You know there’s no one-size-fits-all way to design an evaluation. But with so many approaches, designs, and models to choose from, knowing what to use, when to use it, and how the pieces fit together can be challenging.
The Evaluation Design Toolkit takes the confusion out of evaluation design. Through practical guidance and real-world examples, you’ll explore commonly used evaluation approaches, designs, and outcome- and contribution-oriented models—and learn how to make intentional choices that fit your evaluation’s purpose and context.
This course is designed for early-career evaluators, professionals who plan or manage evaluations, and experienced evaluators looking to strengthen their practice. Rather than an advanced deep dive into one method, it gives you a practical, structured overview of your options and a decision-making process you can return to across different evaluations.
Is this course for you?
If any of the following sound familiar, you’re a perfect fit:
You want more confidence in designing evaluations
You want to make sense of the many approaches, designs, and models available
You’re unsure which opens best fit different evaluation purposes and contexts
You want to make more intentional, fit-for-purpose design decisions
You want to understand what works together and why
You want practical guidance to apply to real-world evaluations
Whether you’re relatively new to evaluation or already have experience and want a clearer way to navigate your design choices, this course will help you build a more intentional approach to evaluation design.
What You’ll Learn
Through five practical modules developed to help you build your evaluation design skills, you’ll learn to distinguish between evaluation frameworks, approaches, designs, and models; compare different options; and intentionally select and combine elements that best fit your evaluation.
1. Build Your Evaluation Foundation
Get clear on the terminology that shapes evaluation design. Understand the different roles of evaluation frameworks and plans, approaches, designs, and outcome- and contribution-oriented models—and how these different components can work together.
2. Explore Evaluation Approaches
Explore how different approaches shape the orientation, priorities and practice of an evaluation, including: Developmental Evaluation • Utilization-Focused Evaluation • Principles-Focused Evaluation • Participatory Evaluation • Feminist & Gender-Responsive Evaluation • Culturally Responsive Evaluation. You’ll also explore different epistemologies and how assumptions about knowledge and evidence can influence evaluation design.
3. Navigate Evaluation Designs
Learn how different designs provide structure for answering different types of evaluation questions, including: Formative Evaluation • Summative Evaluation • RE-AIM • Appreciative Inquiry • Kirkpatrick Model • Economic Evaluation. You’ll explore what each can help you understand, when it may be useful, and what to consider before selecting it.
4. Understand Outcomes & Contribution Models
Explore models that help evaluators understand what changed, how change happened, why it matters, and how a program may have contributed, including: Outcome Mapping • Outcome Harvesting • Contribution Analysis • Most Significant Change. Learn how these models offer different ways to capture outcomes, understand pathways of change, explore contribution, and generate meaningful learning.
5. Put It All Together
Bring your toolkit together and learn how to move from individual options to a coherent, fit-for-purpose evaluation design. You’ll work through how to consider your evaluation’s purpose, questions, context, intended users and uses, and interest holders; determine which tools add value; and make intentional decisions about what to use, combine—or leave out.
More Than Theory: Gain Practical Evaluation Skills
Evaluation design can feel abstract when it’s taught as a collection of definitions. This course is designed to help you apply what you’re learning to real evaluation decisions.
Throughout this course, you’ll work with practical examples and real-world scenarios that demonstrate not only what the different evaluation tools are, but when and why you might use them.
You’ll leave the course with a clearer way to navigate evaluation design decisions, and a toolkit you can return to when planning future evaluations.
What’s Included
Five practical, self-paced modules
Two years of access to course materials
Real-world examples drawn from real evaluation practice
Interactive quizzes and reflection activities to reinforce your learning
A downloadable course workbook to apply concepts as you go
Additional resources for continued learning
Access to the Eval Academy learning community
No need to memorize every evaluation approach—this course will help you understand your options and develop a practical process for making intentional, credible, and fit-for-purpose evaluation design choices.
Build a Toolkit You Can Use Beyond the Course
Think of evaluation design as building a toolkit.
Frameworks & Plans provide the roadmap that brings your evaluation together.
Approaches provide an overall orientation and influence how you approach the evaluation.
Designs provide structure for how different aspects of the program will be examined.
Outcome & Contribution-Oriented Models provide specialized ways to understand and explain change.
You won’t need every tool for every evaluation. What matters is understanding what each tool contributes, when it is useful, and how various tools can completement one another.
That’s what The Evaluation Design Toolkit is designed to help you do.
Meet your instructor
Stephanie Spencer, MSc, CE
Evaluation Associate and Eval Academy Coordinator at Three Hive Consulting
Stephanie is a Credentialed Evaluator with over eight years of experience in research and evaluation across higher education, public policy, sustainability, and international forestry. She holds a Master of Science in Sociology from the University of Bristol and has been with Three Hive since 2022. As Eval Academy Coordinator, Stephanie is passionate about making evaluation practical and accessible, and helping evaluators build the knowledge and confidence to make thoughtful, fit-for-purpose decisions in their work.
Move from “which one do I use?” to confident evaluation design.
You don’t need to know every evaluation approach, design, or model inside and out to design a strong evaluation.
You need to understand what your evaluation needs to accomplish, what your options can contribute, and how to choose the right combination for the situation.
The Evaluation Design Toolkit gives you a structured way to do exactly that, so you can move beyond simply recognizing evaluation terminology and start making confident, intentional design decisions in your own work.
GET 2 YEARS OF ACCESS
FOR JUST $247 USD
Looking for customized evaluation training? We do that, too!
Contact us at info@evalacademy.com