Lunch Session LS2  2 July 2020

The best it can be: the why and how of evaluating outreach and engagement activities.

Aims and scope

This workshop will be led by Sarah Jenkins of Jenesys Associates. Sarah is the lead evaluator for the RAS 200: Sky & Earth project supporting work in the UK, Ireland and South Africa

Based on Sarah's experience in evaluating engagement, education and outreach activities for over 15 years, this session will focus on giving participants practical tools and guidance for devising evaluations that are: meaningful and appropriate to them and their audiences; proportionate to their engagement activities; and effective in providing evidence of both impact and process learning.

Participants will be presented with a 5-step process for systematically planning, conducting and reporting evaluations. This process has been developed through successful completion of over 110 consultancy commissions evaluating projects and programmes of all scales, ranging from small specific interventions to complex multi-national and multidisciplinary partnerships worth up to £10s of millions and involving every possible audience group, ranging from early-years children to policy makers.

The content will draw on participants' own experiences and good practice case studies to explore:

Why evaluate? The purpose and need, i.e. process, formative or summative evaluation

What to evaluate? Including the differences between outputs, outcomes and impact

How to evaluate? Choosing and tailoring evaluation methods to best suit audiences, environments and aims.

Programme

  • Formative and summative evaluation
  • Case studies in evaluation
  • Choosing evaluation methods

Invited speakers

  • Sarah Jenkins, Jenesys Associates Limited

Scientific organisers

  • Prof Mike Bode, European Astronomical Society
  • Anita Heward, Europlanet
  • Dr Robert Massey, Royal Astronomical Society
  • Karen O'Flaherty, European Space Agency

Contact

Updated on Thu Apr 16 17:11:18 CEST 2020