When you type a general search term into google, the most frequently returned first response is from Wikipedia, the giant online crowd-sourced encyclopedia of knowledge. While wikipedia’s reliability may be called into question, its accuracy is based on the work of the masses – of you and I and our willingness to contribute, edit, correct, and update. Much like aea365, it is only as good as those adding to it. I am writing in hopes of convincing others to expand and update entries in the field of evaluation. I am Anthony Zambo and I am hoping to encourage the evaluation community to improve Wikipedia’s listings about the field.
Hot Tip: Here are three evaluation-focused Wikipedia entries, the first and third of which explicitly note the need for improvement.
- Evaluation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaluation
- Program Evaluation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_evaluation
- American Evaluation Association: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Evaluation_Association
Hot Tip: The Wikipedia evaluation entry explicitly notes multiple approaches to evaluation, which are often more akin to reasons for evaluation, including “public relations” and “accountability.” This section in particular appears to need clarification.
Hot Tip: The Wikipedia evaluation entry includes over 75 “methods and techniques” for conducting evaluation. Are you an expert on Appreciative Inquiry? Participant observation? Rubrics? Root cause analyses? These, and over 70 more are listed, each with links to detailed explanations and each ready for you to refine based on your expertise.
Hot Tip: Creating an account is easy and takes less than five minutes. Once you create one, you can edit any page, but be forewarned all of your changes will be visible in the section’s history and each change will record who has made the update.
Happy editing!
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.