Following a review of our evaluation learning program, AES is seeking expressions of interest from facilitators to deliver new online workshops. These workshops are to not only complement but broaden our existing program by aligning more directly to the domains and competencies listed in the Evaluators Professional Learning Competency Framework.
We are seeking submissions of full-day and half-day workshops addressing specific topics – see listing below.
Full-day workshops are split over two sessions of 3 hours each, usually a week apart. Half-day workshops are either one session of 3 hours or split over 2 sessions of 90 minutes each, usually a week apart.
Workshops should be designed using adult learning principles and be interactive to maximise participant learning.
Workshops can be designed for those who are new to evaluation or for more advanced practitioners. Presenters should make clear which level of expertise the workshop is aimed towards; beginner, intermediate, advanced, or all three.
When submitting your workshop proposal please ensure you address innovative theoretical and practice knowledge and skills with consideration to workshop participants’ level of experience. Submission deadline is COB Monday 4 October 2021.
Workshop content should focus on developing knowledge, understanding and competencies, evaluation techniques and practices. You will be asked to provide detail on how your workshop aligns to the Evaluators Professional Learning Competency Framework.
Online workshops are delivered using the Zoom meeting platform (AES owns a business account).
Note: You may submit more than one proposal.
Honorarium
AES workshop presenters are paid an honorarium at the following rates:
Full-day:
flat rate of AUD$2,000 (+ GST) all-inclusive per workshop for up to 18 participants
flat rate of AUD$3,000 (+ GST) all-inclusive per workshop for 19–25 participants
Half-day:
flat rate of AUD$1,200 (+ GST) all-inclusive per workshop for up to 18 participants
flat rate of AUD$1,700 (+ GST) all-inclusive per workshop for 19–25 participants
Note: Two or more presenters may facilitate a workshop, but only one honorarium payment per workshop will be made.
Workshop topics
Please click on each topic for a detailed description.
What can be known about the readiness of an evaluand for an evaluation? We are seeking an interactive and applied training session in how to determine the health of an evaluand prior to commissioning or conducting an evaluation.
Training content for conducting an evaluand analysis could include critical analytical tools and processes to identify the opportunities and threats to evaluation that are presented within an evaluand. This may include, e.g.:
– the nature of the intervention that is being evaluated
– the social or natural (eco) systems into which it is being thrust
– the organisation(s) intending to make use of evaluative knowledge encompassing capacity levels, organisational and socio-cultural frameworks
– historical, political, technical or legal issues pertaining to the implementation and use of an evaluation.
An important aspect of the training will be learning how to adjust to the strengths, weaknesses, uncertainties, gaps and priorities that are apparent in the evaluand.
Training proposals can be submitted for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
Insights from cutting edge systems thinking and the sciences of social complexity offer enormous potential for enhancing how we approach evaluations of interventions that address systemic social and environmental challenges or operate in conditions that are not amenable to control, and where desired outcomes reach beyond what can be fully planned and managed.
Training objectives should seek to familiarise evaluators with systems thinking and complexity science theories and examples of the ways they are applied in evaluation. We are seeking training that provides a broad toolkit, rather than endorses a single approach (i.e. magic bullet). Ideally the training will bring a human centred complex systems framing to understanding how systemic complexity manifest in social problem solving, including in evaluation practice itself.
Suggestions for theoretical topics include compositional interdependencies, interactive dynamics and generative emergence. They may apply to various aspects of evaluation such as the evaluators standpoint or mindset and how this guides their approach to evaluation including how stakeholder engagement is approached, how a theory of change is constructed to frame evaluative inquiry, and how appropriate methods for data collection, analysis and presentation are chosen. Practical examples of the application of insights from systems thinking and the sciences of social complexity may relate to critical analysis of the role of power, resources, relationships and responsive interaction when navigating systemically challenging trajectories in particular situated contexts.
Training proposals can be submitted for intermediate and advanced levels.
‘Evaluation theory reveals who we really are’ (Shadish, 1998).
Because knowing evaluation theory remains central to our professional identity, we are seeking an interactive and applied training session which reviews the question of who we are now in the 21st century?
Training objectives should seek to equip evaluators with unique knowledge base of evaluation theory, including the language we use for making explicit what it is that we do and how this identifies us as different from other professions. Areas of particular interest for this topic include the historical theoretical foundations of the evaluation field and contemporary theoretical debates, including unresolved controversies and opportunities for further development.
Training proposals can be submitted for all levels (beginner, intermediate or advanced).
We are seeking interactive and applied training sessions on the development and use of rubrics in evaluation. Training objectives should seek to equip evaluators with the knowledge and skills to apply rubrics in a range of evaluation settings to support evaluative judgements.
Suggestions for generalist and specialist rubric topics are welcomed. Training content could include (but is not limited to) when to apply rubrics, choosing and applying different approaches to rubric development, rubrics for different contexts and evaluation types, stakeholder engagement in rubric development, and synthesis of evidence and making judgements with a rubric.
Training proposals can be submitted for all levels (beginner, intermediate or advanced).
We are seeking training sessions which address cultural awareness, safety and competency in evaluation practice. Recognising that Australian communities (and therefore cultural awareness and safety) are diverse, proposals should specify the explicit knowledge and skills the training addresses to support evaluation practitioners in identifying relevant training for their context(s), whether that be generalist or specialised capacity.
Training can be directed towards both evaluator cultural awareness / safety / competency and / or methodological considerations in evaluations.
Areas of particular interest for this topic include: overviews of cultural competency and/or cultural competency frameworks and application in evaluation settings, evaluation with multicultural communities, decolonizing evaluation practice, evaluation with, by, for and as Indigenous communities.
Training proposals can be submitted for all levels (beginner, intermediate or advanced).
We are seeking applied training sessions on the design, development and implementation of interactive dashboards using Microsoft Excel and/or Google Sheets.
The training should ideally demonstrate how /or build capacity in using dashboards in monitoring and evaluation.
We expect that training participants would have the foundational skills required to navigate Excel and/or Google Sheets, so that training would focus specifically on dashboards.
Training proposals can be submitted for all levels (beginner, intermediate or advanced).
We are seeking interactive and applied training sessions on collecting and analysing quantitative data for evaluations. Training objectives should be to equip evaluators with the knowledge and skills to collect and analyse quantitative data with rigour in a range of evaluation settings.
Suggestions for a breadth of training topics are welcome. Potential training content could include:
– understanding the range of methods and techniques available
– linking evaluation questions with suitable quantitative measures and data sources
– identifying and designing appropriate quantitative data collection instruments
– organising and ‘cleaning’ quantitative datasets
– crosstabulations to explore data
– applying basic (descriptive) and advanced (inferential) statistical analyses
•– longitudinal survey design and analysis
– integrating quantitative and qualitative data
– graphical and tabular representation
– useful software for collection and analysis.
We are seeking workshop proposals at all levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced).
We are seeking training sessions on understanding and working with ‘big data’ in evaluation settings. Training objectives should be to inform evaluators about concepts and current practices surrounding big data and develop the knowledge and skills to use big data appropriately in evaluation activity.
Suggestions for training topics are welcome. Potential training content could include:
– understanding the big data ‘ecosystem’ and concepts of data mining and data linking
– current and potential applications of big data in evaluation settings
– opportunities, risks and limitations when using big data in evaluations
– identifying whether big data is suitable for a particular evaluation
– ethical considerations around collecting and using big data
– accessing, storing and analysing big datasets
– meaningful use of big data to make merit and worth assessments
We are seeking workshop proposals at the beginner and intermediate levels at this stage.
The purpose of the workshop will be to provide guidance for members considering independent consulting as a fee for service business.
The workshop provider will have their own experience of establishing themselves as a private consultant and be willing to share their knowledge and insights to support others to get started.
The workshop provider will need to provide specific learning objectives which may include, developing a business plan; marketing and networking to responding to tenders or negotiating a contract.
In your proposal, please outline how the workshop will be conducted online, i.e. use of particular software, to make the workshop as interactive with workshop attendees as possible.
This workshop is likely to appeal to experienced evaluators but whom may not worked in or have had limited experience, working as a private, self-employed consultant.
It is also important that in your proposal, you outline which domains and competencies from the Evaluators Professional Learning Competency Framework this workshop will address
High quality data are needed to inform, monitor, and manage programs now and into the future.
This workshop will share information and techniques to help evaluators draw conclusions and recommendations that support program sustainability and detail its impact. Learning objectives may include fundamentals, such as what data quality is, why it is important, and what programs can do to improve it.
In your proposal, please include other specific learning objectives and how the workshop will be conducted online, i.e. use of particular software, to make the workshop as interactive with workshop attendees as possible.
It is also important that in your proposal, you outline which domains and competencies from the Evaluators Professional Learning Competency Framework this workshop will address.
It is expected that this workshop will be targeted at beginner and intermediate level evaluators
Evaluation practice can inadvertently trigger trauma or stress responses with participants.
This workshop will be for intermediate and advanced evaluators, to adapt and adjust their practices to integrate the principles of trauma-informed care, although it is essential knowledge for all evaluators and can be pitched for early career evaluators.
The workshop provider should provide a clear overview of the causes and effects of intergenerational trauma, including cultural and metaphysical impacts, and what it means to have a trauma-informed lens, across our work as evaluation practitioners.
The workshop will provide practical guidance on what trauma-informed practice looks like, implications for planning, analysis and communication with both participants and sponsors/funders, as well as the design, selection and conduct of appropriate methods.
In your proposal, please outline how the workshop will be conducted online, i.e. use of particular software, to make the workshop as interactive with workshop attendees as possible.
It is also important that in your proposal, you outline which domains and competencies from the Evaluators Professional Learning Competency Framework this workshop will address.
Assessment criteria
Use the following assessment criteria to guide your submission. A panel of reviewers from the AES Pathways Committee will assess proposals against these criteria.
| 1 | Relevance to the chosen topic, and of the particular knowledge, techniques and practices for evaluation and evaluators |
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| 2 | Extent to which the proposed teaching/ learning strategies and resources are sound and appropriate for an online environment |
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| 3 | Alignment with the Evaluators' Professional Learning Competency Framework is explicit |
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| 4 | Evidence of the presenter being an effective online workshop facilitator (for example, through receiving positive feedback from other workshops) |
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| 5 | Extent to which the proposed objectives and prerequisites are clear and appropriate for the target group, and the objectives are achievable |
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| 6 | Overall value for the target group |
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How to submit your proposal
Submit by COB Monday 4 October 2021
Use the online form to submit your proposal. The form will ask you to supply the following information:
– Workshop title
– Contact details for main facilitator
– Has this workshop been presented before? If yes, where?
– Professional experience
– Presentation experience delivering workshops, including online
– List of presenters with short bios
– Workshop proposal – see below (max 400 words)
– Target group
– Prerequisites / level of experience
– Relevance to Evaluators Professional Learning Competency Framework
– Justification for workshop – see below (maximum of 300 words)
Go to online submission formProposal for a workshop (word limit: 400 words)
Your proposal for a workshop should describe:
– the purpose of the workshop
– the particular knowledge, techniques and/or practices to be addressed
– the specific objectives/learning outcomes of the workshop
– the online teaching/learning strategies to be used
– the target group at which the workshop is pitched, and any prerequisites including the level of experience
– how does your workshop address domains and competencies from the Evaluators' Professional Learning Competency Framework
Note: Keep in mind the assessment criteria listed above in preparing your proposal.
Justification for workshop (word limit: 300 words)
The justification statement explains the workshop’s relevance to evaluation and the importance of what you are proposing. It should also provide evidence of:
– your expertise in the area
– your experience in workshop facilitation and applying adult learning techniques
– details of where and when you have presented this workshop before and, if so, evidence of success.
