Workshop: Evaluation Ready 1 – Getting the project, plan and timing right before you evaluate

Date and time: Monday 19 June & Thursday 22 June 9.30am to 1.00pm AEST (registration from 9.15am) Registrants are to attend both sessions. (full day workshop - 2 sessions)

Venue: Via Zoom. Details will be emailed to registrants just prior to the workshop start time

Facilitator: Dr. Samantha Abbato

Register online by: Friday 16 June 2023. Spaces limited to 25 participants

Fees (GST inclusive): Members $260, Organisational member staff $375, Non-members $425, Student member $125, Student non-member $210*  * Students must send proof of their full-time student status to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Workshop Overview

Evaluation is important for identifying if a project, program, or other initiative has made a difference, achieved intended goals, and how it can be improved. But evaluation takes time, energy, and resources, and the reality is that many evaluations are not used or are misused (Patton, 2015). Assessing the usefulness, readiness, and timing for an initiative (“evaluand”) to be evaluated before you start can provide valuable information for resource allocation, program improvement, and evaluation planning.

The purpose of this workshop is to provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to start effectively assessing the evaluability of programs and other initiatives. Simple-to-use tools, templates, checklists, and techniques from a range of fields including evaluation, systems thinking, and change management will be introduced. Throughout this practical workshop, participants will be supported in working on the evaluability assessment of their own initiatives through the completion of applied activities, presentations, and group discussions.

Workshop Content

Participants will learn how to determine evaluation readiness, time evaluability assessment, and evaluation, and identify practical strategies to increase the evaluability of a project, program, or other initiative. Using tools, templates, and checklists they will practice across three areas of readiness – 1. Evaluand, 2. People, 3. Infrastructure.

1. Evaluand: Using tools for preparing and assessing the health and readiness of evaluands such as projects, programs, and policies including evaluation frameworks, theory of change (TOC), and program logic (PL) alongside a checklist. Futureproofing by identifying enduring principles, and systems thinking tools for understanding context and testing assumptions.

2. People: Recognition of the role of program staff, stakeholders, and evaluation users. Identifying the relationship between stakeholders and power differentials impacting evaluation ethics and use. Diagnosing the readiness of staff and stakeholders for evaluation and evaluation capability building (ECB) using a checklist.

3. Resources and infrastructure: Access to adequate resources to implement and sustain evaluation. Data availability includes access to baseline and monitoring data, data reliability, and integrity. Identifying support infrastructure and policies and procedures for supporting evaluation, including ensuring ethical processes of data collection, storage, reporting, and use. Using a diagnostic tool to identify priorities and support the next steps for infrastructure improvement.

The workshop will be interactive and involve the sharing of experiences and hands-on activities supported by diagnostic tools and checklists. Case studies from the experience of the presenter in the areas of health, communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and culturally and linguistically diverse settings will be discussed. Participants will be provided opportunities to apply new skills to their own work. They will take away practical tools that they will be able to use again.

Workshop Outcomes

Workshop learning outcomes include:

- Knowledge of three major areas of evaluation readiness (evaluand, people, infrastructure)

- Ability to use checklists to identify strengths, weaknesses, uncertainties, gaps, and priorities for evaluation readiness

- Ability to apply strategies to assess and improve the health of an evaluand, the readiness of the team and stakeholders, and the data and systems infrastructure to support evaluation.

PL competencies

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluator’s Professional Learning Competency Framework. The identified domains are:

• Domain 1 – Evaluative attitude and professional practice

• Domain 2 – Evaluation theory

• Domain 3 – Culture, stakeholders and context

• Domain 4 – Research methods and systematic inquiry

• Domain 5 – Project management

• Domain 6 – Interpersonal skills

• Domain 7 – Evaluation Activities

Who should attend?

This workshop is designed for professionals who commission or conduct evaluations. Beginners and those new to evaluation will also benefit as well as those at Intermediate level.

About the facilitator 

Dr Samantha Abbato - Director of Visual Insights People, a transdisciplinary consortium of professionals which includes: a videographer, a graphic designer, a systems-thinker, an organisational psychologist, and a virtual reality practitioner. With a passion for communication and maximising evaluation use, she is able to offer a wealth of case studies of evaluation readiness assessment for projects, programs, organisations and partnerships.

Sam has more than twenty-five years of health and community sector experience and strong methodological expertise across a range of qualitative and quantitative disciplines, including public health, epidemiology, medical anthropology, biostatistics, and mathematics. She engages in a utilisation-focused approach, mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods, and evaluation case study and stories for building evaluation capacity and making a difference in the health and community sectors.

Workshop start times

• VIC, NSW, ACT, TAS, QLD: 9.30am

• SA, NT: 9.00am

• WA: 7.30am

• New Zealand: 11.30pm

• For other time zones please go to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html