Training and formal education

Formal courses can be a useful way to develop people’s knowledge and skills in conducting and/or managing an evaluation. 

Courses range from one day introductory short courses to complete doctoral programmes in evaluation.

Individuals can sign up to existing courses or organisations can develop and deliver or commission customised courses which prepare people to work within their particular organisational processes and structures.

Formal courses can be delivered face to face or virtually through webinars, self-study or online learning.

Ideally, courses provide opportunities for participants to link what they are learning to their existing knowledge, to discuss how to apply what they are learning to their situation, and to practise the skills they are learning.

The links below provide information about a variety of training courses with a focus on evaluation:

Short Courses (face to face)

• Summer Institute – American Evaluation Association and the Centers for Disease Control. Atlanta, USA July each year.  Features keynote addresses and then rotations of three-hour training sessions over 4 days. Held in Atlanta, July. 
• Building Skills to Evaluate Development Interventions: A training program from the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) that involves a two week residential and runs annually in Ottawa, Canada. 
• Many organisations offer short courses in the lead up to their conferences- for example, the African Evaluation Association conference.
• The University of East Anglia offers two short courses on impact evaluation - Impact Evaluation for Evidence-Based Policy in Development, which covers experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, and Beyond Surveys and Experiments - Other Approaches to Impact Evaluation, which covers rigorous non-experimental approaches to impact evaluation, including QCA, process tracing, realist evaluation and outcome mapping.

Short Courses (distance)

• Coffeebreak seminars - 20-minute demonstrations on a variety of topics available live or by accessing the recorded webinar. Most are available only to AEA members - but two series focused on development evaluation are available to all:
  • the BetterEvaluation series in 2013; and  
  • the International series in 2012
• EvalPartners e-learning: the EvalPartners initiative offers an introductory unit on development evaluation and fixed courses
• AES calendar of professional learning events: This page from the Australasian Evaluation Society provides a list of short course that are offered throughout Australia and New Zealand.
• IOCE events calendar: This page from the International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation provides a list of short courses and events provided by evaluation organizations from around the world.
• European Evaluation Society Training Opportunities: This page from EES provides links to a number of short course in evaluation. Please note that these courses are not provided by EES itself.

University Programs

• University Programs: This page from the American Evaluation Association (AEA) provides links to a number of graduate programs in evaluation that are offered in universities throughout the world.
• European university-based study programmes in evaluation: This page profiles eleven post graduate university programs with a focus on evaluation.