Want to design an infographic but don’t know how to use illustrator (a.k.a. the thing most designers use for infographics)? You have a lot more options these days with template based sites like piktochart, easelly, and infogram. You can also use a photo collage builder like pixlr or fotor to lay it all out. But one […]
Laureen Trainer’s Why Evaluate Cartoons
Not only did my why evaluate series result in a string of comments, I also received a few cartoon contributions. Today’s post features three cartoons courtesy of Laureen Trainer. I asked Laureen to give a little context, here’s what she wrote: I’m always trying to think of reasons why organizations should evaluate as I work a […]
The Known Software Universe
It used to be that you could get by with just a copy of Microsoft Office suite and your field’s analysis program of choice. Maybe there was another specialized tool you needed, or some type of home built piece of software owned by your organization but that was about it. But the web has grown […]
Don’t change your 200 page report
Don’t change your 200 page reports. I’m sure someone in your audience wants that comprehensive report, and if you change it, you won’t be serving that audience anymore. Now instead of changing the report, create an adaptation. A second report to reach a different audience (maybe a 30 pager). After you’re done with that, why […]
PDF Surprise
So wait… A bunch of PDF reports that were likely not written with a web audience in mind were put up on the web alongside lots of other PDF reports that were likely not written with a web audience in mind. There were probably no other dissemination strategies attached to communicate the individual PDF reports […]
Limited Resources
Today's “Why Evaluate” cartoon inspired by Jonathan Mwewa: Evaluation helps you to answer to key questions of the existence of your project or programme including relevance?, cost effectiveness?, efficiency?, replicability? and sustainability? We need to evaluate our work because we need to be accountable for the resources that we use because resources are scarce and […]
Blogging Advice – Short Version
So a little while ago I compiled a really long blogging advice post. But because everyone is overwhelmed, here is a really short post. You should start a blog because it gives you a platform where you have complete control. Here is how you start. 1. Go to wordpress.com and sign up. You’ll need an […]
IF statements in Excel to check for bad sorts
An Excel spreadsheet is really easy to corrupt. It's why syntax backed analysis programs have an edge, they keep an audit trail. Maybe you forgot to extend the auto filter across all of your columns. Or maybe you copy and pasted in some new data that just happened to be sorted by state abbreviation instead […]
Write every single day
I'm stuck in a rut. There is a ton that I want you to know. Things that I get asked. Things I feel evaluators would find valuable. Things that keep me up at night. But for some reason they just sit in my head. I need to shake them loose. Starting today I'm a daily […]
Why Evaluate: 5 cartoons inspired by comments
In my first Why Evaluate post I asked for a little help coming up with more reasons. You came through in a big way, with a string of comments on my post and on LinkedIn/Twitter. Here is a set inspired by the post comments. I’ll have more based on the Social Media replies coming soon. […]
6 developmental evaluation cartoons
Last week was developmental evaluation week on AEA365, so it seems like a good time to share some of my related cartoons. Many of these were inspired by a Michael Quinn Patton talk at last year’s evaluation conference. But there are at least two more recent ones here that you have not seen. Input not scheduled […]
5 new cartoons, who cares if you’re not a visual person
I’ve heard, “I’m not a visual person,” quite often lately. Sometimes it takes other forms… “well it just doesn’t appeal to me, maybe I’m old school.” All that might be true. I’m not going to fight you on it. But here’s my question. Why does that matter? When you present, do you present to yourself […]