Like many evaluators I just kind of fell into the field from a career in research (my MA is in sociology). One day I found myself in a non-profit data position doing evaluation work. Then over the years I’ve learned more and more about the field through a lot of self-initiated learning, experience and participation in […]
Articles
Too many sustainable development goals or too few
The age-old question, how many goals should we have? I’m not really caught up on the overall discussion regarding the sustainable development goals, but the following sparked today’s cartoon. This quote is from Tom Murphy in No surprises in U.N. draft for next global development goals: The draft document for the goals that will set the global development […]
Ban Powerpoint… or Not
The way I see it, Power Point is not a presentation tool. It is a presentation illustration tool. And Power Point is designed in a way that leads you toward illustrating a presentation using bullet points. It can most certainly be used by great presentation illustrators to help support great presentations. But most of the time, […]
Data fluency and the last mile
I think the last mile analogy below will resonate with many of you. Sometimes it seems like we spend so much time planning, collecting and analyzing that the final piece almost becomes an afterthought. But if you really want the data to be used, you need to put in some real effort at the end. […]
Data Science versus Evaluation
Data science vs evaluation is a false dichotomy. Because data science and evaluation (or research) are not mutually exclusive. Both data science and evaluation involve data. Depending on the purpose, occasionally there will be overlap. When data science is used to make judgements on the merit, worth or value of things it is evaluative. Most […]
Serious versus Solemn
If the things we want to share with the world are really as important as we think they are, then we should be pulling out all the stops to get them into the hands (and minds) of our intended audience. And yes, sometimes this means adding entertainment value. I’m talking evaluation, research, evidence, causes, problems, […]