Join us for workshops #aes19SYD
August 2019
#aes19SYD is all about un-boxing evaluation so it can fulfil it’s potential. Five of our senior staff are delivering workshops to un-box evaluation theory, unlock your capacity to collect quality survey data and assess impact, then present what you’ve found in a way that captures the attention of your audience. Check out the Conference’s workshop program, and continue reading to discover what our workshops are all about.
Gerard Atkinson: Last year I developed a workshop on presentation techniques for ARTD’s internal professional development and training program, and it went so well that we turned it into a half-day workshop. Presenting is a core skill that evaluators need – commissioners of evaluations want a variety of deliverables to engage stakeholders in using findings. Public interest is also growing in evaluation, and engagement needs to match how the public consumes information. This workshop gives evaluators a grounding in core presentation skills and a toolkit for developing effective and engaging presentations. My blog last year provides a taster of the tips and techniques we will cover. The workshop will give you many more, as well as the chance to put it all into practice through interactive exercises.
Brad Astbury: I will be running a full-day workshop on the practice-theory relationship in evaluation. The evaluation literature provides a diverse variety of alternative and often competing theories that offer different views about what constitutes ‘good’ evaluation and how it ought to be conducted. Grappling with the multitude of evaluation theories (aka approaches or models) can be confusing and overwhelming. This raises some important questions:
- “How can evaluators navigate their way through the evaluation theory swamp?”
- “Are some theories of evaluation better than others?”
- “How can informed judgements be made about which theory or theories to use, given the circumstances?”
The workshop will provide a set of resources and tools for engaging with and thinking about the role evaluation theory can play in supporting practice. You can get a taster of what the workshop will cover in my blog from my workshop for the AES Autumn Intensive program. If you are interested in finding out more about the workshop, please send me an email – I would be very happy to answer any queries.
Rachel Aston: The number of social programs aiming to achieve generational social change continues to grow, yet the complexities of social change means assessing impact can be a challenge. In our AES workshop: Designing Social Impact Evaluations I, along with Ruth Aston and Timoci O’Connor from the Centre for Program Evaluation, University of Melbourne will ‘unbox’ key measurement issues to assess social impact.
We will cover how to utilise the ever growing number of frameworks and how to design an evaluation (developing questions, designing measurement models, developing data collection tools & analysis plans, developing conclusions and judgements) that will allow you to answer the question: is the program achieving social impact? This workshop is designed to apply evidence from fields including Implementation Science to evaluation practice to bridge the evidence to practice gap, much like we discussed in a previous AES blog.
The workshop will involve a series of practical exercises, to help you work through the stages of designing an evaluation to assess social impact using real-world scenarios. We would like to tailor workshop activities to you, so please get in touch via email if you have any questions: rachel.aston@artd.com.au.
Jasper Odgers and Klas Johansson:
Following its success at #aes18LST, Klas and I will be running our questionnaire design workshop to help evaluators learn the fundamentals of good survey design through practice.
The workshop is pitched at an introductory level, and is designed for people who need to collect standardised satisfaction and outcomes data from clients or stakeholders as part of their professional practice. The workshop is also suitable for funders of evaluation and research to understand what constitutes good practice when asked to review survey instruments as part of managing the contract of an evaluation.
In the workshop we will cover:
- The best methods to achieve great outcomes
- The underlying principles of good questionnaire
- How to ask a good question and examples of bad questions
- Choosing the right response options
- Getting ready to conduct a survey.
There’s bound to be lots of exciting and insightful things going on at this year’s AES conference, and we can’t wait to see you there! If you like the sound of any of our workshops, register via the aes19 website and come along, primed and ready to un-box evaluation!
