I am Gene Shackman, manager of the Free Resources for Evaluation Methods site, and author of the Beginners Guide to Program Evaluation. In this blog entry I talk about online resources that can help people learn about program evaluation. Just to mention, I have not taken many of the classes listed below, so I can’t speak for their content or quality. If you do take any, please let me know.
Rad Resources:
There are a wide variety of free online classes and class material about evaluation and methods. One place to start is the Public Health Learning Network. The PHLN lists regional centers, which have public health classes, some of which are about evaluation. For example the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice has classes on epidemiology and program evaluation. I think many of these classes offer certificates of completion. Another place to start is the Khan Academy, with classes on statistics and probability and other topics. I start with these because I have looked into their classes and they are generally good.
Some other websites link to classes elsewhere, for example, Edx, links to statistics classes from many universities all over the world. While the classes are free, for many classes it costs $49 to add a certificate.
One example of a university with free classes is Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative, which offers several classes in statistics. You can sign on and keep track of your classes and scores. The University of Minnesota also has an online section. They have a class on biostatistics and one on epidemiology. The self-paced versions are free, or you can get continuing education credit for $10.
There are a number of other people or organizations that have online classes, some of which are free. Udacity has some free classes, some about data. Look near the bottom of their page. Bob Dick has an Action Research and Evaluation class. The Global Health Learning Center, partially funded by USAID has a section on monitoring and evaluation.
I keep a list of these and other classes on my site about evaluation resources.
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