Western vs. Development Evaluation: Commonalties and Differences

What does evaluation have to do with the movie The Big Lebowski?   Well, the answer is "a lot" if you're up on this cult classic and number one favourite movie of James, aka "The Dude". Before you listen to this podcast we strongly suggest you view it first so you don't miss any of our keen insights. Cheers, Kylie & James P.S.  Here is the photo of Kylie recording in the Starbucks bathroom while on family vacation.

This week we're thrilled to have Michael Scriven, frequently called "the father of evaluation", as our special guest.  Michael chats about his chapter on "The Foundation and Future of Evaluation" in the new book, The Future of Evaluation in Society: A Tribute to Michael Scriven.  Check it out here or subscribe to our podcast on iTunes for free. For more details on Michael's work you can visit his website here. Feel free to leave us your comments below, and don't forget to rate us on iTunes to give us some feedback! Enjoy, James & Kylie    

In this episode we explore some of the differences between typical Western-style evaluation and the monitoring & evaluation (M&E) that occurs in an international development context.  To help us, we invited two guests with experience working in both areas, Ian C. Davies and Tom Pellens. Here are some of the links we mention:John Mayne and Contribution Analysis Jennifer Greene and Mixed Methods European Evaluation Society 2014 conference  Below is the cartoon mentioned by Terry Smutylo and Daniel Morales-Gomez.  Until next time, Kylie & James

In this episode we present a mixed bag where Kylie debriefs her most excellent week at the African Evaluation Association 2014 conference and James takes us on his search for a "non-boring" evaluation journal article.  Fun on the Conference Shuttle Bus Shout outs to Serge-Eric Yakeu Djiam, Jennifer Bisgard, and all the hard-working volunteers at AfrEA2014 and the Cameroon Development Evaluation Association for a great conference. Below are some of the articles that James found in his search: American Evaluation Association Task Force Statement on ‘What is Evaluation?’ (2014) Fournier, D. M. (1995). Establishing evaluative conclusions: A distinction between general and working logic. New Directions for Evaluation, 65, 15-32. Patton, M. Q. (2000). Overview: Language matters. New Directions for Evaluation, 86, 5-16. Gamble, J. (2006). A Developmental Evaluation Primer. Montreal, PQ: McConnell Foundation. Dozois, E., Langlois, M., Blanchet-Cohen, N. (2010). DE201: A practitioner's guide to Developmental Evaluation. Montreal, PQ: McConnell Foundation. Scheirer, M. A. & Schwandt, T. (2012).  Planning evaluation through the program life cycle. American Journal of Evaluation, online, 1-32. Evergreen, S. & Metzner, C. (2013). Design principles for data visualization in evaluation.  New Directions in Evaluation, 140, 5-20.  Until next time, Kylie & James

Happy New Year Everyone!...okay...we're a little late with that...but we have a short new podcast! Many of us have personal New Year's resolutions, but what about professional ones?  In this episode James and Kylie share their evaluation resolutions for 2014. Got some of your own?  We'd love to hear them so leave us a comment below. Cheers Kylie & James  P.S.  Kylie just thought of another resolution she forgot to mention - use a systems lens!

In this podcast we chat with Kerry Bruce, Director of Results and Measurement at PACT, and an all-round expert on the use of mobile technology for data collection.  Here are a couple of resources:Kylie is curating a Pinterest Board of resources in Mobile Data Collection here.  If you have any additional suggestions please let us know. Below is the detailed cost comparison we discuss from Tanzania courtesy of Daisy Nathan Kisyombe and PACT. Enjoy, Kylie & James

Have you joined the rubrics revolution?  In this podcast we chat with Jane Davidson of Real Evaluation about the use of rubrics in evaluation.   If this piques your interest, we have a slew of resources for you:slides from the AEA 2013 conference on rubrics:   Jane's Evaluation Rubrics: What, Why, and How Kate McKegg's The Value of Rubrics in Messy Non-Profit Evaluation Contexts Better Evaluation and Judy Oakden have a new document on rubrics, Evaluation Rubrics: How to Ensure Clear and Transparent Assessment That Respects Diverse Lines of Evidence You can find a number of real-life rubrics from the New Zealand Ministry of Education here Jane's blog post on Evaluation specific methodologies: The methodologies that are specific to evaluation  one of Kylie's favourite articles is Jane's Unlearning Some of Our Social Scientist Habits Jane also has a great little e-book, Actionable Evaluation Basics:  Getting Succinct Answers to the Most Important Questions, check it out! (Actionable Evaluation is also available in print here.) Finally, if you've used rubrics in evaluation, please leave us a comment below and let us know how it worked for you. Until next time, James and Kylie

Couldn't make it to AEA2013?  In this episode we share our own personal highlights of the conference.  By the way:the Twitter hashtag for Michael Quinn Patton is #omgmqp. Sheila B. Robinson gives a great summary on her blog here. the evaluation typology map that Kylie mentions is here. Finally, don't forget to check out Chris Lysy's hilarious cartooning of the conference. Enjoy, James & Kylie    

This week we talk to Sheila B. Robinson about the great AEA365 Blog! cheers, Kylie and James  

Stephanie Evergreen's new book on data visualization came out yesterday, so we asked her to join us again on the podcast to give us some highlights plus her thoughts about the role and future of data visualization in evaluation.   You can purchase a copy of the book here.   See you at AEA! Kylie & James