Real Evaluation

AES Conference Support Grants

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:43:03 +0000

Conference fees for the AES conference in Wellington are pretty hefty for many evaluators, so anyone eligible may want to check out the following offer:

The Australasian Evaluation Society is pleased to invite emerging Indigenous evaluators from Australia and New Zealand and emerging evaluators from South East Asia and the Pacific to apply for financial assistance to support their attendance at the 2010 AES International Conference. The AES will provide support with applications on request. Requests should be received no later than 21 May 2010

Applications close 4 June 2010
Download
Information and application form (150Kb MS Word file)

That’s this Friday!!

Source: http://www.aesconference2010.org.nz/drupal/node/41

AES conference (in Wellington) registration opens – Davidson workshop available

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 22:14:06 +0000

Registration for the Australasian Evaluation Society conference in Wellington has just opened and there’s an impressive pre-conference workshop line-up, including one from Jane Davidson entitled: Actionable answers for real-world decision makers: Real evaluation nuts and bolts that deliver.

Summary of workshops

Date	Time	Topic	Presenters
Monday 30 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI)	Jess Dart, Clear Horizon
Monday 30 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Introduction to Realist Evaluation Design	Gillian Westhorp, Community Matters
Monday 30 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Linking Evaluation and Social Justice	Donna Mertens, Gallaudet University
Monday 30 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Introducing Developmental Evaluation	Kate McKegg, The Knowledge Institute Ltd; Nan Wehipeihana
Monday 30 August	8.30am to 12.30pm	Using Evaluation for Policy: Rapid Evidence Assessments (REAs)	Rowena Cave, Ministry of Justice
Monday 30 August	1.30pm to 5.30pm	Using Programme Logic in Multi-Level Multi-Site Programme Evaluations	John Owen, Centre for Program Evaluation
Tuesday 31 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Developing Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks	Anne Markiewicz, Anne markiewicz and associates
Tuesday 31 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Evaluation design and implementation	Elliot Stern
Tuesday 31 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	Actionable answers for real-world decision makers: Real evaluation nuts and bolts that deliver	Jane Davidson, Real Evaluation Ltd.
Tuesday 31 August	8.30am to 4.30pm	The power of the visual image: Using photo based data collection techniques to enhance participation and dissemination	Diane McDonald, Centre for Programme Evaluation; Rosalind Hurworth, University of Melbourne; Pamela St Leger, University of Melbourne
Tuesday 31 August	8.30am to 12.30pm	An Introduction to the Most significant Change – uses and aplications of the technique	Tracey Delaney, Consultant
Tuesday 31 August	8.30am to 12.30pm	(Re)Discovering How Applied Systems Theory Improves Evaluation Planning and Performance Reporting when Working with Multi-Level and Multi-Programme Interventions	Jerome Winston, CeDRE
Tuesday 31 August	1.30pm to 5.30pm	Evaluative Reasoning, Evidence & Use	Thomas Schwandt, University of Illinois
Tuesday 31 August	1.30pm to 5.30pm	Designing improved performance measurement systems	Graham Smith, Numerical Advantage Pty. Ltd.

It’s possible to sign up for a workshop without registering for the full conference, but the conference itself is likely to be a great one!

Check out the list of keynote speakers:

Roger Maaka, an academic who has studied and advised on indigenous issues internationally.
Donna Mertens is past president of the American Evaluation Association and editor of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, as well as a professor at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.
Thomas Schwandt is a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a member of a standing committee of the National Research Council of the US National Academies of Sciences.
Elliot Stern is Professor of Evaluation Research at Lancaster University and the current editor of Evaluation: the international journal of theory, research and practice.
Jane Davidson, formerly the Associate Director of the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University, Jane now heads an evaluation consulting firm in Auckland, New Zealand.

Outcomes, impacts & causal attribution – handouts from Auckland anzea symposium

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:14:48 +0000

Here’s a link to the handout for the anzea symposium session today entitled:

Outcomes, impacts & causal attribution: Affordable, practical, feasible options for the real world

Abstract:

If a reported “outcome” is not caused by a programme, it is not an outcome at all; it’s a coincidence. Simply measuring variables that may or may not be causally related to a programme (i.e. could just be coincidences – who knows?) doesn’t tell you anything about the quality or value of the programme, therefore it can’t be referred to as outcome evaluation – it’s just measurement.

Isn’t causal attribution heinously expensive, almost never feasible, and doesn’t it require some form of experimental design? Not necessarily. In this interactive seminar, Jane will use case examples to illustrate eight strategies for inferring (or ruling out) causal links between programmes and suspected outcomes: (1) Ask those who have observed or experienced the causal effect, (2) Check if the content of the intervention matches the nature of the outcome; (3) Look for distinctive effect patterns (modus operandi method), (4) Check whether the timing of outcomes makes sense, (5) Examine the relationship between program “dose” and “response”, (6) Use a comparison or control, (7) Control statistically for extraneous variables, and (8) Identify and check the causal mechanisms. These strategies are outlined in Jane’s (2004) book, “Evaluation Methodology Basics: The nuts and bolts of sound evaluation” (Sage).