Adventures In Evaluation Podcast

Anyone for a Horse Race?

Anyone in the mood for a horse race?  Today we tackle the issue of different and competing evaluation approaches, models, types, whatever you want to call them, plus the challenges of inconsistent terminology in our field. 

Here are the two articles we mention by Paul Duignan:

• Terminology in evaluation: Approaches, types (purposes), methods, analysis techniques and designs
• Untangling Evaluation Terms – Discussing Evaluation 'Types' With Clients Often More Useful Than Evaluation 'Approaches'

Here's the Evaluation Typology map that Kylie mentioned.

If you're interested in the free Evaluation Glossary Mobile App you can download it here. 

As usual, we'd love to hear your comments below. 

Until next time, 

James and Kylie

Game Changers for Evaluation: A Chat with Hallie Preskill

This week we're thrilled to have Hallie Preskill join us to give a shortened version of her keynote speech at CES2013 in Toronto.

Here are links to some of her current work, plus the Developmental Evaluation graphic she mentioned:

• Evaluating Social Innovation
• Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement
• Buiding Evaluation Capacity
• Reframing Evaluation Through Appreciative Inquiry
• Developmental Evaluation graphic (full article)

And here is this link to the book she mentioned on Big Data.

Don't forget to leave us your comments below.

James & Kylie

The Changing Role of Evaluators: Reflections from the CES2103 Conference

Are you a technical specialist, or a social change agent?  Or as Dan Wilson at the Ontario Trillium Foundation says, "Are you part of the Rebel Alliance, or a Jedi Knight?" 

In this episode, we discuss the changing role of evaluators based on provocative keynotes from Hallie Preskill and John Gargani the CES2013 conference in Toronto. 

As promised, here are some of the links we discussed:

• Jane Davidson's ebook, Actionable Evaluation Basics: Getting succinct answers to the most important questions
• Stephanie Evergreen's webinars and book
• SROI Canada

 
John Gargani's Evaluator Doll                  John Gargani's slide on evaluators as social change agents.


 
Jane Davidson discovers Tim Horton's.    Anita Myers using data clicker at final plenary.

Don't forget to tell us your likes and dislikes!

James & Kylie

The Launch of the Evaluation Mentoring Canada Initiative

In this episode Kylie interviews James and Jane Whynot about their super cool initiative, Evaluation Mentoring Canada.  Check out the website, and sign up: http://evaluationmentoringcanada.ca/.

Cheers,

Kylie & James

Kylie and her first mentor, Dr. Anita Myers, at CES2013.

2013 CES Conference Preview

Hi Everyone, This week we've got Dawn Campbell-Borland and Dayna Albert as guests giving us a sneak preview into this year's CES conference in Toronto, June 9 - 12th.  This year's theme is "Evaluation Across Boundaries". They have some great workshops, keynotes, and presentations lined up, so have a listen!

For more information about the conference please visit http://cestoronto2013.ca/.

Cheers, Kylie & James

The CES Evaluator Competencies: A Chat With Heather Buchanan

In this episode we chat with Heather Buchanan, evaluation volunteer extraordinaire about the history, development, and use of the Canadian Evaluation Society's Competencies for Evaluation Practice.

Here are some related links:

• Competencies for Evaluation Practice (detailed version)
• CES Professional Designations Program
• Establishing Essential Competencies for Program Evaluators

Cheers,

James & Kylie

Making the Leap: Evaluation Consulting with Gail Barrington

This week we chat with Gail Barrington, Evaluation Consultant and author of Consulting Start up & Management: A Guide for Evaluators & Applied Researchers. Plus, here's a great little AEA365 post about small-sized consulting. Cheers, James & Kylie

Oh My God It's March: Dealing with March Madness

It's March again, and evaluators everywhere are frantically racing to meet multiple deadlines.  (In fact, Kylie almost forgot to post this episode herself.) Have a listen to James and Kylie discussing some of their techniques for dealing with March madness.

How do you deal with it? Leave us your comment below.

Hey, Where Did My Stats Go?

Some of us evaluators find ourselves using our stats straight away out of school, and for various reasons some of us don't.  In this episode we discuss the different levels of use among evaluators and what is really acceptable in terms of statistical knowledge. Here's the link to Paul D. Ellis' great little e-book, Effect Size Matters. AEA often has eStudy courses on statistics,  and here are some other links for online refreshers:

• Rice University's Online Statistics Education: An Interactive Multimedia Course of Study
• Johns Hopkins' Introduction to Biostatistics 1
• Coursera/Princeton University's Statistics 1
• UDACITY's Introduction to Statistics

This list is by no means comprehensive, so please, if you know of others, suggest them in the Comments below! And yes, it is Rip Van Winkle.

Humour and Evaluation

This week we're pleased to have Chris Lysy, evaluation cartoonist, as our special guest. Chris talks with us about the use of humour in evaluation. To see more of Chris' evaluation funnies visit his website here. And here's a link to another example of humour in evaluation: Roger Miranda's Eva the Evaluator.