ACTIVITY 1: BRAINSTORMING EVALUATION IDEAS
Goal: To identify areas for evaluation, and any barriers or enablers.
Write down as many ideas as you can of what you want to evaluate - anything you can think of, regardless of any practical issues.
Once you have your evaluation ideas written down, go through them again and write down what are some barriers or enablers to the evaluation.
These information will be useful when you write your program descriptions or logic models for your program/service.
If you have trouble coming up with evaluation ideas, consider these questions:
A solid, systematic approach to planning can help you identify what you can/cannot achieve and help you make the case to management or your colleagues about what you want to do and why. It will also help you set realistic expectations - you most likely will not be able to evaluate everything you want to evaluate, but even small projects can provide useful information to services.
Write down as many ideas as you can of what you want to evaluate - anything you can think of, regardless of any practical issues.
Once you have your evaluation ideas written down, go through them again and write down what are some barriers or enablers to the evaluation.
- Barriers: Are there things, people, or resources that could stop/hinder the evaluation?
- Enablers: Are there things, people, or resources that could help the evaluation?
These information will be useful when you write your program descriptions or logic models for your program/service.
If you have trouble coming up with evaluation ideas, consider these questions:
- What is the aim/purpose of your program/service?
- How do you know it is working?
- Can you think of areas to improve?
- Has anything changed recently in how you deliver the service? (e.g., consumer-directed care)
- What has a client been happy or concerned about?
A solid, systematic approach to planning can help you identify what you can/cannot achieve and help you make the case to management or your colleagues about what you want to do and why. It will also help you set realistic expectations - you most likely will not be able to evaluate everything you want to evaluate, but even small projects can provide useful information to services.