As captured by volunteer Dara Snyder.
The last Office Hours were hosted by the City of Vancouver's Water Resources Education Center onJanuary, 25th, 2013.
An opportunity to examine and exchange ideas regarding the most pressing issues arising from efforts individual education providers are undertaking. Topics covered include:
- a program’s overall evaluation strategy,
- data interpretation methods and
- program evaluation and refinement.
This is a productive space for dialogue and to have the provider community’s work examined by experts who act as coaches as well as teachers, as well as by conservation education peers in the field. An engaging roundtable, the ‘Evaluators’ Office Hours’ event accepts up to 12 participants, by prior arrangement. A dozen has proved over the past 5 meetings to be an optimal number of participants to balance participation and learning from the experience and perspectives of others. This event serves to re-ignite the provider community’s enthusiasm for their program delivery and inspire confidence and direction in all the work unfolding in the field.
The relevant topics and related concepts that were discussed include:
Evaluation Strategies
- Learn to demonstrate measurable differences as a result of program implementation/participation.
- Review and compare different measurement tools (such as Likert scales, proficiency scales and rubrics); engage in hands-on reviews of your own instrument (optional) as well as those of other roundtable participants.
- Refine and align your instruments to measure and extract the most relevant and compelling information. Engage in discussion around how to capture changes for participants that occur, even at a very subtle level. Examine sample questions and determine how to fine-tune them to be more aligned with program goals and needs.
- Review relevant concepts such as: pilot testing, pre and post- tests, triangulation, control groups, sampling methods, quantitative and qualitative methods, identifying evaluators, and the application of evaluation models such as Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels and Bennett’s Hierarchy of Program Effectiveness.
Data Interpretation
- Explore different ways of measuring and reflecting change, be they qualitative or quantitative (color coding; adjusting instruments to demonstrate change more clearly), as well as how to demonstrate the most subtle shifts that have occurred as a result of program implementation.
- Examine the strengths and weaknesses of your instrument.
Program Evaluation & Refinement
- Learn how to engage with current challenges in order to support program objectives and goals.
- Learn how to better align program implementation with meeting internal goals as well as goals of funders and other stakeholders.
- Network and tune in to the resources that you can tap into- those that the facilitators are aware of as well as the ideas of others at the table! Explore possibilities of strategically linking your work to established programs in order to access additional resources and streamline your efforts.
Next Evaluators’ Office Hours will take place in May, 2013. Interested in supporting this event? Location sponsors are needed that can host an evening meeting on a Friday afternoon. Please email the Conservation Education Council here to express your availability.