Hello Loyal aea365 readers! I’m Sheila B Robinson, aea365’s Lead Curator and sometimes Saturday contributor with one question for you: What is it that YOU would like to read about on this blog?
I first posted this article in 2015 (and every year since) and we receive excellent responses from readers each time it is published. I typically share responses in a subsequent post and as a result we receive blog articles on some of the suggested topics from authors willing to answer the call. Here we go again with some minor updates to reflect the times:
Lesson Learned: AEA365 has been going steadily since January 1, 2010 with 2850+ contributions (Wow!) from hundreds of evaluators across the globe. We accept individual submissions at aea365@eval.org on a rolling basis, along with inquiries about sponsored or themed weeks. Posts are about any and all evaluation-related topics, and anyone with something to share with fellow evaluators is welcome to contribute! If you are interested in sharing a tip, please be sure to check out our *updated* contribution guidelines here.
As a key learning tool for evaluation, aea365 can also be a fabulous vehicle for promoting evaluation and evidence-based policy. With that in mind, we would like to include your voice as we head into the new year as our aea365 team considers inviting authors and groups to contribute.
Hot Tip: Let’s crowdsource some ideas for aea365 in 2018 and make it the best year ever.
Please let us know what you would like to see in aea365 by responding to these questions in the comments (click the word “Comments” just under the title of the post and scroll down to add yours):
1. What do YOU want to read or learn more about on aea365 in 2018?
2. Who do YOU want to hear from on this blog?
Thanks very much for your input and your loyal readership.
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.
Thanks for asking! I’d like to learn more about:
1. How evaluators collaborate with stakeholders to apply the findings of the evaluation to improving their initiative.
2. Experiences in presenting evaluation findings that are negative. How do evaluators have this conversation with their clients?
One thing that slows me down in reading otherwise excellent posts are the plethora of abbreviations. Even if abbreviations are defined at the beginning (sometimes they’re not, like MIE TIG), I have to constantly scan to see what they stand for. Avoiding abbreviations may take up more room, but it enhances readability.
Although I’m aware that the EPTF has issued key documents promoting a wider role for evaluation in government and legislation, etc., I’d hear more from members’ regarding strategies they use to help bridge evaluation with policy at various levels of implementation (e.g., organizational, community, state, federal, etc.).
Would be great to hear about approaches that folks use to encourage deeper and more useful conversations about evaluation findings.
There are already lots of good blogs about how to organize and present information more clearly in reports, PPTs etc. But reports and presentations can’t speak for themselves and evaluators always have much more to share than they can put in any document. There’s rarely a substitute for a good discussion.
So it would help to see some complementary blogs focused on how to make the most of evaluator/client conversations about findings and recommendations. For example, ways to help prep for those, how organize the time, facilitating them more effectively, etc. In short, insights to help folks come away from these meetings with a genuine sense of “time well spent”.
Research on evaluation
Would love to see more on participatory methodologies, equitable evaluation, evaluation & evaluative thinking capacity-building (particularly in nonprofits), language access/justice in evaluation settings, and culturally-responsive evaluation
I would like to see more on accessible/universally-designed data collection, especially for mixed-audience groups. That is, not as in how-to collect data from specific audiences, but how to make data collection more inclusive overall.
I would love to see more resources for “beginner” evaluators, such as overviews of guiding theories of evaluation, history of the evaluation field, subfields/types of evaluation, and important terms defined.
I would love to hear more about developmental evaluation and evaluating across sectors and across agencies, with a focus on bringing together diverse interests and goals!
I would like to see some articles on how evaluation can be used to support collective impact work.
Thank you for the excellent daily tips! I feel that they are keeping me up-to-speed on current trends in evaluation, as well as the basics that we need to keep reminding ourselves about.
I would like to hear more about specific practices that foundations are implementing to further evaluation and learning with their grantees. Commentary on power differentials as they relate to these kinds of relationships would be welcome too.
It’s been great fun to see this take off over the years. No surprise here, but I’d like to see more on specific techniques and practices to help give evaluation away through building evaluation capacity, instructional design, best practices in teaching of evaluation, etc.
I am really interested on SGD’s M&E system. Some kind of sharing of different countries experiences or perspectives from public and private sector engagement.
I would like to see a series on managing evaluation using best practices for management such as project management principles, or management practices derived from latest developments in organizational theory and behavior.