Co-creating Innovative Models of Evaluation Teaching and Capacity Building

• In Event: Building Evaluation Capacity in the Early Childhood Field to Enhance System Effectiveness

Abstract

Community-based organizations across North America face an overwhelming pressure to generate evidence demonstrating accountability and impact. However, often they lack capacity and resources to produce this kind of evidence. Moreover, some universities are failing to equip students with contextual evaluation knowledge and skills (Hunter & McDavid, 2018), creating a generation of emerging professionals who are unable to respond to the non-profit sector’s evaluative needs. At the same time, there has been an increase in efforts to conduct more socially relevant evaluations, leading to a shift in the relationship between the academy and society. Working across and beyond disciplinary boundaries, engagement with civil society provides opportunities to generate new understandings of evaluation theory in practice. To address these gaps in evaluation education, the Evaluation Capacity Network developed UEval, a one-week evaluation institute to bridge theory and practice (Gokiert et al., In Press).

UEval integrates hands-on, context-centered experiential learning pedagogy to enhance learner engagement in evaluation education (Mignone et al., 2018; Boyce & McGowan, 2019; Kaye-Tzadok & Spiro, 2016), and aims to build reciprocally beneficial and socially relevant evaluation capacity among students and community practitioners. As a key strategy for engagement and learning, UEval includes a dual co-creation process: i) curriculum for UEval is co-created with an advisory committee representing faculties, government, and community; and ii) learners from diverse backgrounds co-create evaluation plans for real-life community-based case studies. The institute offers a blended delivery approach, with online modular learning of basic evaluation theory through case-based curricula. In-class instruction uses a mix of didactic lectures, experiential activities, and facilitated case-study group work. An evaluation of the institute has provided insight on the efficacy of experiential learning and co-creation in learners’ evaluation capacity. Specifically, we studied pre-post evaluation competencies (Canadian Evaluation Society, 2018), reflection assignments and final evaluations to explore the impact of the UEval model of teaching and learning evaluation. Findings show that pedagogy focused on group process contributes to perceived learner competency gains and increased evaluation capacity building. Opportunities for constructivist ways of learning from and with one another, and being able to participate in an active community of practice, were expressed as crucial to the overall learning experience. Through community-informed case-based learning and learner co-creation of evaluation plans, UEval also supports community stakeholders by providing them with a tangible evaluation resource, which they can apply to their organizations and implement in practice. Findings from UEval support the development of a new model for university- and community-engaged evaluative teaching and learning that addresses community organizations’ need for evaluation support while developing a cohort of university students and community practitioners equipped with the knowledge and skills to develop and implement effective evaluations.

In this presentation, we will discuss the process of: (i) forming a Learning Advisory Committee; (ii) co-creating and teaching an evaluation curriculum to three different types of learners (i.e., undergraduates, graduates, and community professionals) in one setting; (iii) piloting UEval as both an in-person and remote institute; and iv) conducting evaluations of the course.

Authors

• Rebecca Jayne Gokiert, University of Alberta

• Shelly Jun, University of Alberta

• Jason Scott Daniels, University of Alberta

• Ana Karbabian, University of Alberta

• Cheryl-Anne Nadine Poth, University of Alberta

• Ken Mathew Cor, University of Alberta

• Jane Springett, University of Alberta