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Develop initial description
TaskIt is helpful to develop an initial description of the project, program or policy as part of beginning an evaluation. Checking this with different stakeholders can be a helpful way of beginning to identify where there are disagreements or gaps in what is known about it.
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Investigate possible alternative explanations
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Synthesise data from a single evaluation
TaskTo develop evaluative judgments, the evaluator draws data from the evaluation and systematically synthesises and values the data. There are a range of options that can be used for synthesis and valuing.
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Synthesise Data Across Evaluations
TaskThese options answer questions about a type of intervention rather than about a single case – questions such as “Do these types of interventions work?” or “For whom, in what ways and under what circumstances do they work?” The task involves locating the evidence (often involving bibliographic searches of databases, with particular emphasis on finding unpublished studies), assessing its quality and relevance in order to decide whether or not to include it, extracting the relevant information, and synthesizing it. Different options use different strategies and have different definitions of what constitutes credible evidence.
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Ensure accessibility
TaskOptions
General accessibility
- Applied graphic design principles
- One-Three-Twenty-Five (1:3:25) principle: ensuring that research findings are presented in a logical and consistent manner by allowing for a 1 page outline, a 3 page executive summary and 25 pages to present the findings and methodology.
- Plain language: Plain English is a clear and concise writing style that ensures accessibility to the information for all stakeholders.
- Chartjunk elimination: Removing visual elements that don't contribute to the main message.
- Descriptive chart titles: Particularly when graphs must standalone, without the assistance of the evaluation to help interpret them, descriptive subtitles in the chart can point out the key take away points for the reader.
- Emphasis techniques: Visual techniques to draw attention to certain bits of information.
- Headings as summary statements: Engage readers through making headings of the report summary statements.
Specific accessibility barriers
- Colour blind audience: Difficulty distinguishing between different colour wavelengths.
- Low vision and blind audience: Vision impairments which make reading documents difficult or impossible.
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Probability Sampling
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Existing documents and data
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Establish decision making processes
TaskA variety of decisions must be made during an evaluation including: what the focus of the evaluation will be; who will undertake the evaluation; how data will be collected and analysed; how the evaluation will be reported; and who will have access to the final report. Therefore, it is important to establish a decision making process to ensure agreement can be reached on how decisions will be made.
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Support use
TaskFollowing up on the agency response to evaluation findings is an essential part of supporting use. However, this is often a management responsibility rather than an evaluators. You can work with managers to provide a list of options for follow-up as part of the final report. Indeed, time should be built into the evaluation budget to account for support beyond report delivery. There are a range of options that can be used:
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Manage data
TaskGood data management includes developing effective processes for consistently collecting and recording data, storing data securely, backing up data, cleaning data, and modifying data so it can be transferred between different types of software for analysis.
