Evaluation for Learning: Making Meaning from our Data

Evaluation for learning is evaluation focused on understanding and improving programs, not assigning a grade/score. Engaging deeply with evaluation can improve your organizational culture, evolve your programs toward equity, and strengthen your relationships with the communities you serve. This series is offered through the OSU Extension Outdoor School.

Series outcomes

Participants use ethical, culturally responsive, and equity-focused approaches to regularly evaluate the process and outcomes of their programs as part of an evaluation cycle.

1. Participants implement practices and messaging in their organizations that promote a culture of giving and receiving feedback and use evaluation as a tool for organizational learning and improvement.
2. Participants have an expansive toolbox of skills, resources, and ideas to gather and make sense of quantitative and qualitative data in culturally responsive ways—e.g., facilitation protocols, observation guides, self-evaluation tools, collaborative analysis templates, and well-crafted surveys.
3. Participants engage community members (defined broadly) as collaborators throughout the evaluation process—i.e., defining success, developing learning questions, collecting data, analyzing and sense-making, and taking action based on learning.

Registration information

All sessions are from 1 to 3 p.m. Pacific. After you register, you will receive an emailed calendar invitation with all events. The series will run for five months, starting in November 2024. If you miss any of the sessions, do not worry! You are welcome to join us at any point in the series, and if you like, you can catch up by watching videos of sessions you miss (shared 5 days after).

• Tuesday, November 19th, 1 to 3 p.m. Evaluation for Learning Season 2 Kickoff: We’ll share resources from Season 1 and help participants enter the evaluation process wherever you're starting from. Did you miss season 1? No sweat. Evaluation is not a linear process, and we’ll work to ensure that content is responsive and relevant to your needs.
• Tuesday, December 17th, 1 to 3 p.m. Data Analysis: Tips and Tools for Understanding Data: What counts as “data”? What questions can you answer with the data you have? We’ll share examples of the many ways to work with and understand data.
• Tuesday, January 21st, 1 to 3 p.m. Making Meaning from our Data: In this session, we’ll explore what meaningful stories we might be able to uncover from data, how our own assumptions can influence our understanding, and ways to address these assumptions.
• Tuesday, February 18th, 1 to 3 p.m. Plan and Adjust: Getting Concrete about Changes: Now that your evaluation process has given you new insight … what’s next? We’ll discuss ways to apply your learning and make informed choices for program improvement.
• Tuesday, March 18th, 1 to 3 p.m. Series Wrap Up: Stories from the Field: In this session, we’ll listen to stories from the field, and hear from our colleagues who have evaluated, learned and improved before us.

Register once for the entire series (even if you only plan to attend some of the sessions). Once you have registered, you will receive a recurring calendar invitation via email. You can accept the calendar invitation for the entire recurring series or for individual events within the series. The calendar invitations will include the Zoom links for joining events. Upon registration, you will also be added to the email list for the series, which will be used to provide updates, reminders, and resources about the series.

PDUs/CEUs

Participants will have the opportunity to request Professional Development Unit (PDU)/Continuing Education Unit (CEU) certificates for attending the workshops. We will combine requests across the entire series rather than after each session.

Optional Pre-Work

Below you can find video clips and a Reflection Guide for the content covered in the first season of the series. If you're joining us for the first time, or if you joined for Season 1 but would like a refresher, we recommend reviewing the Season 1 videos and Reflection Guide.