Real Time Evaluation and the rise of the Evaluation SWAT team

This five minute presentation shares Michael Patton's view on real time evaluation. Looks like evaluators will soon have to get tactical training to make sure they are ready to execute like a SWAT team!

Simple Evaluation Tools

I'm starting a project soon where I will have to develop and compile really simple Evaluation materials for organizations that may not have a lot of expertise to do M&E. Here is one of the really simple but striking tools that I came across at the community sustainability engagement evaluation toolbox

Getting the right tools into people's hands is of course only part of the solution to making sure evaluation at grass roots improve. Sometimes it is less the case that people don't know how to do M&E, and more that they are spread too thin to also do M&E....

WEF Global Competitiveness Report

Sadly, but not surprisingly, South Africa still hovers near the bottom on most of the education related indicators measured by the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report.

This just means that there is a lot of scope for making a difference here! To play with the data, go here: 

MOOCs that Evaluators might consider

In a previous post I shared some ideas about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). I came across a listing of free courses offered by some prominent US Universities via online platforms. The full list with more than 200 courses is here:

The site uses the following key to provide information on the certification offered through these courses.

Free Courses Credential Key
CC = Certificate of Completion
SA  = Statement of Accomplishment
CM = Certificate of Mastery
C-VA = Certificate, with Varied Levels of Accomplishment
NI – No Information About Certificate Available
NC = No Certificate

What caught my eye is the fact that there are quite a few courses listed that might be interesting to evaluators looking to improve their stats capacity.

Introduction to Statistics (NI) – UC Berkeley on edX – January 30 (TBD weeks)

Introduction to Statistics: Making Decisions Based on Data  (C-VA) – Udacity

Probability and Statistics (NC) – Carnegie Mellon

Statistical Reasoning (NC) – Carnegie Mellon

A few of the courses that started recently that also looks interesting include:

Data Analysis (NI) – Johns Hopkins on Coursera – January 22 (8 weeks)

Introduction to Databases (SA) – Stanford on Class2Go – January 15 (9 weeks)

Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization (CC) Knight Center at UT-Austin - January 12 (6 weeks)

Social Network Analysis (CC) – University of Michigan on Coursera – January 28 (9 weeks)

Looks like we will have to keep a closer eye on this type of information! 

 

Reflections from various Evaluations of ICT projects

After doing a few evaluations of ICT projects implemented in schools, I reflected on some of the lessons we've learnt throughout. Its not an exhaustive list, and certainly a lot of it is common sense, but somehow it is the common sense things that people do not always plan for.

Reflections from various Evaluations of ICT projects from Benita Williams

Some of the key questions that I would like to see answered in evaluations of these type of initiatives include:

›Is the content relevant? (Content review)
›Is the content user friendly for the intended users (Heuristics Evaluation)
›Was it implemented at the requisite “dosage” level for it to possibly work? (Fidelity monitoring)
›Can it effect change? (Experimental design)
›At what cost (to participants and donors) (Cost analysis)
›Then only, can you start to answer: Did it work (Quasi-experimental design)
›Does it work better than “something else” (comparative analysis), or how does it work with “something else”