March 10-15: STEM Evaluation TIG Week on aea365       

All this week we'll be learning from members in the STEM Evaluation TIG. They have hot tips, cool tricks, rad resources, and lessons learned not only for their extension colleagues, but also applicable more broadly to evaluators working in any context.

Go to aea365 and use the buttons to subscribe to a tip-a-day via email:
http://aea365.org/blog/ 

March 14: Outstanding Evaluation Award Winner (2010) - Beth Weitzman & Diana Silver        

Coffee Break Webinar - Thursday, March 14, 2:00-2:20 PM Eastern

Free for AEA Members! This Coffee Break will feature the 2010 Outstanding Evaluation, Evaluation of the Urban Health Initiative. The webinar will consist of the winning team giving a brief overview of the evaluation, its outstanding features, and any changes they would have made in hindsight. Find out what made this evaluation so successful and what pieces of it might be applicable to your own evaluation projects. Attendees are encouraged to review a summary of the evaluation beforehand and come with questions.

Preregister https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/732389825 

March 15: Deadline for AEA Conference Proposals   

Deadline      

Submit a proposal to present at the AEA annual conference to be held October 16-19 in Washington, DC. All proposals are due on or before Friday, March 15.

Go to the Evaluation 2013 webpage and proposal submission forms:

http://www.eval.org/eval2013/default.asp   

March 17-22: ECLIPS & Systems TIG Week on aea365       

ECLIPS stands for the Evaluation Communities of Learning, Inquiry, and Practice about Systems, a community of practice of 15 evaluations involved in STEM education evaluations. They'll be sharing all week about their learning through this exploratory project.

Go to aea365 and use the buttons to subscribe to a tip-a-day via email:
http://aea365.org/blog/ 

March 21: The Intersection of Evaluation and Strategy - Cassandra O'Neill         

Coffee Break Webinar - Thursday, March 21, 2:00-2:20 PM Eastern

Free for AEA Members! Evaluation and evaluators can play a critical role in strategic planning. This webinar will talk about 3 types of assessments that evaluators can use to make strategic planning more effective and financially sustainable for organizations. As a result of the assessments, organizations learn about both their impact and financial viability. The combination of information is often new and leads to obvious changes to increase effectiveness and financial sustainability for organizations. The presentation will discuss how evaluators can add these tools to their tool kits - and tips on how to introduce these approaches to nonprofits and other organizations.

Preregister https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/691848976 

March 29: Deadline for Nominations to the AEA Board    

Deadline      

AEA welcomes nominations for the 2014-2016 AEA Board of Directors. Nomination process details may be found online.

Go to the Board of Directors Call for Proposals:

March 31- April 4: Video in Evaluation Week on aea365       

We've gathered together evaluation practitioners using video in innovative ways - from Participatory Video around the world, to videography support to traditional reports, to using video as a prompt for exploratory discussions.

Go to aea365 and use the buttons to subscribe to a tip-a-day via email:
http://aea365.org/blog/ 

April 4: Outstanding Evaluation Award Winner (2012) - Bernard Wood

Coffee Break Webinar - Thursday, April 4, 2:00-2:20 PM Eastern

Free for AEA Members! This Coffee Break will feature the 2012 Outstanding Evaluation, Evaluation of the Implementation of the Paris Declaration. The webinar will consist of the award winner giving a brief overview of the evaluation, its outstanding features, and any changes he would have made in hindsight. Find out what made this evaluation so successful and what pieces of it might be applicable to your own evaluation projects. Attendees are encouraged to review a summary of the evaluation beforehand and come with questions. Evaluators may also be interested in the key methodological steps and lessons described in Annex 5 of the full report  or the  Policy Briefs as examples of pro-active and accessible dissemination of evaluation results.  

Preregister https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/361035657   

April 9, 11, 16, & 18: Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Planning for Programs/Projects - Scott Chaplowe          

eStudy - Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12:00-1:30 PM Eastern

This eStudy will introduce six key planning steps for a successful monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system: 1) Identify the purpose and scope of the M&E system; 2) Plan for data collection and management; 3) Plan for data analysis; 4) Plan for information reporting and utilization; 5) Plan for M&E human resources and capacity building; 6) Prepare the M&E budget. While informed by international programs/projects, the 6-step approach has been designed to guide international programming at both the community and national levels. Therefore, it is also appropriate for domestic (US) programs and projects.

This eStudy is based upon the Results Based Management (RBM) approach to programs/projects. Therefore, it will examine the initial needs assessment and program project design that informs the M&E planning, as well as the other stages of the project/program cycle and planning and their corresponding M&E activities (events).

Particular emphasis will be given to planning for data collection and management using an example M&E planning table for indicators and assumptions. The eStudy will walk through how to develop an M&E planning table that builds upon a project/program's logframe to detail key M&E requirements for each indicator and assumption. Like the logframe, M&E planning tables are becoming common practice in both international and domestic programming - and with good reason. They not only make data collection and reporting more efficient and reliable, but they also help better plan and manage projects/program through careful consideration of what is being implemented and measured. 

This eStudy will occur in four 90-minute sessions and will include preparation materials sent before, between, and after the sessions. It is appropriate for both the new and more experienced M&E practitioners, as well as program/project managers.

Day 1: Identify the purpose and scope of the M&E system; this builds upon the initial assessment and project design (logical framework).

Day 2: Plan for data collection, management, and analysis.

Day 3: Plan for data reporting and use. And plan for human and financial resources.

Day 4: Planning for the evaluation/s; this session will examine more closely the real-world consideration for program evaluaton.

Presenter: Scott Chaplowe is currently a Senior M&E Officer at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), based in Geneva. In addition to M&E, his work includes strategic planning, organizational development, and capacity building for international organizations, with an emphasis on participatory methodologies. He regularly gives trainings in M&E internationally, including professional development workshops with the AEA, the European Evaluation Society, the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association, and the Malaysian Evaluation Society.

Register: https://www.eval.org/webinar_reg/Registrationtop.asp

Last day to register is Tuesday April 2 

April 17 & 24: Empowerment Evaluation - David Fetterman          

eStudy - Wednesdays, 1:30-3:00 PM Eastern

Empowerment evaluation builds program capacity, fosters program improvement, and produces outcomes. It is used throughout the world, ranging from Australia to Japan and Brazil to New Zealand. Empowerment evaluation teaches people how to help themselves by learning how to evaluate their own programs. The role of the evaluator is that of a coach or facilitator in an empowerment evaluation, since the group is in charge of the evaluation itself. In addition, empowerment evaluation produces both a learning organization and measurable outcomes. This eStudy will introduce you to the steps of empowerment evaluation and tools to facilitate the approach.This eStudy will occur in two 90-minute sessions and will include preparation assignments and materials sent before, between, and after the sessions.

Day 1: This session will cover principles guiding empowerment evaluation, such as improvement, capacity building, and accountability. The session will also briefly discuss theories, such as process use and theories of use and action. Concepts covered will include: critical friend, cycles of reflection and action, and a community of learners. This session will also present the steps to plan and conduct an empowerment evaluation, including: 1) establishing a mission or unifying purpose for a group or program; 2) taking stock - creating a baseline to measure future growth and improvement; and 3) planning for the future - establishing goals and strategies to achieve objectives, as well as credible evidence to monitor change.

Day 2: This session will highlight the use of basic self-monitoring tools such as establishing a baseline, creating goals, specifying benchmarks, and comparing goals and benchmarks with actual performance. In addition, this session will respond to critiques in the literature. The session will also cover how to select appropriate user-friendly technological tools to facilitate an empowerment evaluation, aligned with empowerment evaluation principles. Although questions will be entertained throughout the two sessions, this session will conclude with a formal question and answer period focusing on questions such as: when it is most appropriate to use an empowerment evaluation approach, common challenges, and effective techniques to implement high quality empowerment evaluations.

Presenter: Dr. David Fetterman is president and CEO of Fetterman & Associates, an international evaluation consulting firm. He has 25 years' experience at Stanford University in administration, the School of Education, and the School of Medicine. He is the founder of empowerment evaluation and the author of 15 books including Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages: Hewlett-Packard's $15 Million Race Toward Social Justice (Stanford University Press) and Empowerment Evaluation Principles in Practice (Guilford) with his collaborator Dr. Abraham Wandersman. He is a past-president of the American Evaluation Association, recipient of the top evaluation theory and practice awards, and co-Chairs the Collaborative, Participatory and Empowerment Evaluation AEA Topical Interest Group. He is a highly experienced and sought after speaker, facilitator, and evaluator.

Register: https://www.eval.org/webinar_reg/Registrationtop.asp

Last day to register is Wednesday April 10

April 18: Crowdsourcing: What Is It, and How Can It Be Used in Evaluation Practice - Tarek Azzam

Coffee Break Webinar - Thursday, April 18, 2:00-2:20 PM Eastern

Free for AEA Members! This Coffee Break webinar will introduce evaluators to crowdsourcing and how to access it through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. The presenter will discuss how crowdsourcing can be used to develop survey instruments, determine reliability, and could potentially be incorporated into evaluation design and qualitative analysis. Crowdsourcing's strengths and limitations will also be discussed.

April 25: Evaluating Systems of Teacher Collaboration: A Framework for PreK-12 Evaluators - Rebecca Woodland

Coffee Break Webinar - Thursday, April 25, 2:00-2:20 PM Eastern

Free for AEA Members! Evaluator use of the Collaboration Evaluation and Improvement Framework to assess the factors of: 1) team configuration, 2) time allocation, 3) focus, 4) process, and 5) diffusion, can equip school stakeholders with the knowledge they need to build effective professional learning communities. Through this webinar participants will learn to recognize and assess the quality of the five key educational system factors that affect teacher collaboration and its capacity to improve instruction and increase student learning.

May 8 & 15: Staying Power: Intermediate Consulting Skills - Gail Barrington 

eStudy - Wednesdays, 12:00 - 1:30 PM Eastern

Are you already managing a consulting practice? Do you find that you look forward to the field work but avoid dealing with the small business demands? Join Gail Barrington in this 3 hour webinar series as she explores some of these challenging consulting management issues. 

Evaluators and applied researchers may be well versed in academic research processes, but uncertain about how to handle the entrepreneurial and small business management skills needed to be successful independent consultants. For those aspiring to have a thriving practice, this workshop addresses common problems encountered in the day-to-day running of a small consulting business and identifies some of the key issues faced by consultants.

This workshop will help participants problem solve around the ongoing challenges of a consulting practice. For those looking to fine-tune their current professional practice, a seasoned practitioner/award winner/author will share from her more than two decades of experience. This eStudy will occur in two 90-minute sessions. Each session will cover three inter-related topics.

Day 1: Fresh approaches to marketing, Pricing strategies, Contracting for success 

Day 2: Communicating with clients, Managing work processes, Fostering innovation 

Day 3: Plan for data reporting and use. And plan for human and financial resources.

Presenter: Gail Barrington has more than 25 years of practical experience. She founded Barrington Research Group, Inc. in 1985 and has conducted more than 100 program evaluation studies. In 2008, Gail won the Canadian Evaluation Society award for her Contribution to Evaluation in Canada. A frequent AEA presenter, she is the author of a new book entitled Consulting Start-up & Management: A Guide for Evaluators and Applied Researchers, released by SAGE in 2012.
 
Register: https://www.eval.org/webinar_reg/Registrationtop.asp 

Last day to register is Wednesday May 1