I’m Emma Perk, Project Manager at The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University. I find evaluation to be very informative and important, but feel that there is a disconnect when it comes to sharing and implementing the results. I am very interested in data visualization, but today I am here to talk about another avenue—video.
Video is a great method for distributing evaluation knowledge and results. This is a not a revolutionary idea (I know) but I have located some great resources for making short videos that are high-quality and low cost. It requires you as the evaluator to boil ideas down into a simple summary, then get a little creative.
Rad Resource: Microsoft Movie Maker (PC) or iMovie (Mac) and a cell phone. You may be thinking I am pretty lame right now, but there are some fantastic features on these programs that are already loaded directly onto your computer. Record interviews during your data collection with your phone and embed the interviews with some basic text and graphics to create a high-quality, low-cost video that you can include with your evaluation report.
Lesson Learned: I learned the hard way, so I will share with you now. Embedding a video directly into your PowerPoint presentation allows for an easy transition from slides to video. It’s easy to embed, but you need to have your movie in the right format. Check out this helpful webpage to find out more.
Rad Resource: Adobe Voice is a free app available on the iPad only. This app is so useful and easy to use; you may consider buying an iPad if you don’t already own one. Adobe Voice has a library featuring 25,000 graphics, backgrounds, and music. Then you record your own voice to finish the movie. It’s fast and simple. Find out more here.
Rad Resource: Join me for my session at this year’s AEA conference.
This contribution is from the aea365 Tip-a-Day Alerts, by and for evaluators, from the American Evaluation Association. Please consider contributing – send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. Want to learn more from Emma? She’ll be presenting as part of the Evaluation 2015 Conference Program, November 9-14 in Chicago, Illinois.