Adventures In Evaluation Podcast

'Soft' Skills for Evaluators: Facilitation and More

This week we talk about facilitation and it's role as an essential skill for evaluators. Here are some of the resources we mention:

book by Sam Kaner
International Association of Facilitators
Government of Canada's Centre for Intercultural Learning
If you have buckets of money and want a skilled instructor, check out this offering at Hollyhock here. This one is definitely on my To Do list one year.
plus....
we'll be discussing the ARECCI ethics tool in a future episode, but here is the link for now
a photo of Kylie's charging station for her 12 offline mobile data collection tablets.

All for now,
Kylie & James

10 Things You Didn't Learn in Evaluator School

Today we chat with evaluator Ann K. Emery about her recent AEA365 blog post for on "10 Things You Didn't Learn in School".
Apologies up front for the poor sound quality in this particular episode while Kylie Skypes-in from Africa, and for her rambling after a hard day at work and several glasses of wine later.
The management blog that Ann mentions is Ask a Manager.
And here is John Gargani's blog post on jargon.
Enjoy,
Kylie & James

Evaluation Proverbs, Prepping for Results, and Mobile Data Collection

Hi folks,
This week we again chat about a number of miscellaneous items including helpful proverbs for explaining evaluation in different cultures and mobile data collections.
Here are the links to the West African Proverbs for evaluation and the 30 Ideas for Building a Culture of Evaluation. You can join the AEA365 Tip A Day here and all the Evaluator Christmas Carols here. Apologies for Kylie's singing.
Cheers,
James & Kylie
ps-bigger apologies about my countertop ramblings!!~James :)

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

In this episode Kylie and James debrief their respective weeks in evaluation and end up covering a multitude of subjects including re-discovering one's stats skills, evaluator objectivity, and reporting to senior execs.
To see the Chris Lysy cartoon we reference click here.
Here's an example of the Post-it note technique Kylie refers to:

And the stock photo:

"Help, my son is a stock photo photographer..."
And here's the link to the Government of Canada's Treasury Board report, "2011 Health of the Evaluation Function" that we...uh...didn't get around to discussing.
Until next time,
James and Kylie

Budgeting for Evaluation

Hi Everyone,
In this episode we discuss budgeting for evaluation along with the following resources:
WMU's Checklist for Developing & Evaluating Evaluation Budgets-by Jerry Horn
The Pell Institute's Evaluation Toolkit
Kellogg Foundation's Evaluation Handbook
The Program Evaluation Standards F4 & P7
Michael Scriven's EVALTALK Comments
Know any others? Leave us a comment below.
cheers,
James & Kylie

AEA 2012 Conference Interviews & Debrief

Neither James nor I were able to make this year's AEA conference :( ... so in this episode we chat with our most excellent reporters on the ground, Pat Mueller and Amy Germuth. You'll hear their personal highlights of the conference as well as the views of various attendees on what was hot and major take-aways.
What was YOUR major take-away from the conference? Leave us a comment below.
Cheers,
Kylie & James

Top Reasons Why We Like Being Evaluators

This week, James and Kylie discuss why they love being evaluators, and have a big happy group hug.
What are your reasons? Leave us a Comment below.
cheers,
James & Kylie

Credentialing Evaluators: An American Perspective with Jean King

This episode we speak with Jean King, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota, on the viability of credentialing in the United States.
Here again is the link to the Canadian Evaluation Society's Professional Designation program.
Let us know your comments about what you've heard by clicking on the Comment link below.
Cheers,
Kylie & James

Seven Deadly Sins of Evaluation

The name of this episode says it all. Have a listen and let us know what you think.
By the way, here's the scene we mentioned from Barton Fink.
Are we missing any sins? You can add them in the Comments box below.
Cheers,
Kylie & James

AEA2012 Conference Preview with Susan Kistler

Our special guest for this episode is Susan Kistler, Executive Director for the American Evaluation Association, who gives us a sneak preview into this year's upcoming conference (Oct. 22 - 27, 2012) as well as some tips for both newbies and the seasoned attendee.
AEA2012 Conference Website
Enjoy,
James & Kylie