Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.
Hi, we are Paula Ogston-Nobile, Associate Director and Jesse Senechal, Executive Director with the Institute for Collaborative Research and Evaluation (ICRE) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and Nena Bloom, Director of Northern Arizona University Evaluation Services (NES). We are excited to share our reflections and lessons learned as first-year University-Based Evaluation Centers (UBCs).
ICRE was established in 2023 with a mission to deliver research and evaluation support that advances learning and maximizes program outcomes. ICRE is housed in the School of Education at VCU and is an expansion of the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium. ICRE offers research and evaluation services, methodological support, and professional learning opportunities.
NES was also established in 2023 to provide broader evaluation services for Northern Arizona University and the regional community. NES is housed in the Office of the Vice President for Research and is an expansion from a previous location in an academic unit. We serve as independent evaluators for externally funded sponsored projects, and also provide evaluation advice and capacity building for campus affiliates.
As UBCs, we benefit from university resources including the Institutional Review Board, and research administration support; these ensure compliance and facilitate the funding processes. Administrative and financial support further streamline operations, enabling us to focus on evaluation methodologies. Moreover, being part of a university provides access to faculty expertise and fosters interdisciplinary collaborations. These affordances empower UBCs to conduct rigorous, ethical evaluations while contributing to academic discourse and advancing knowledge in evaluation science and practice.
While operating as a university evaluation center offers numerous institutional resources, the relationship between UBCs and their home institution is mutually beneficial. ICRE collaborates with a wide range of external organizations, agencies, and community partners on evaluation projects. These relationships provide valuable opportunities for faculty to build relationships with community partners as well as for students seeking applied evaluation experiences. NES builds capacity for evaluative thinking by facilitating partners to think critically about program logic, what counts as evidence, and to focus on program improvement. As we continue to enhance our services, NES plans to expand services to the regional community and provide student internships. The collaborations that UBCs develop enhance their universities’ reputations as hubs for expertise in program evaluation and strengthen community ties.
Lessons Learned:
Following our first year as university-based evaluation units, we have learned several lessons:
- To build support, UBCs should communicate with university leaders about the value it adds to the institution. For instance, NES provides metrics to leadership on submitted grants, funded projects, populations served, and grant dollars earned. To elevate its university profile, ICRE runs professional learning sessions on evaluation methods for faculty and students.
- UBCs should establish standard operating procedures to ensure mission-aligned growth. For example, ICRE has instituted a team-review process for research and evaluation requests. This has been effective in ICRE’s aim for conscientious growth and helps ensure that its projects are aligned with university goals. Through the team review, ICRE identifies ethical issues or political ramifications that might arise through involvement in a project. NES meets regularly with institutional leadership and has established standardized procedures for working across the university.
- UBCs should reach out to other evaluators who work in similar contexts. As new UBC’s we have garnered wisdom and a sense of camaraderie with other evaluators who work in this unique context. Through participation in the UBC TIG meetings and conference sessions we have had opportunities to discuss topics such as hiring, and learn about UBC variation, including discipline expertise, level of institutional integration, size, services, and budget models. Such discussions help us all to grow; we encourage others to join this community.
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