If you teach, lead workshops, or run group activities, you have probably asked participants to evaluate their experience. Here are a few tips to make that feedback truly useful:
March 23, 2012 - 3:30am
Surveys are one of the Improve Group’s most frequently used evaluation tools, and for good reason they are great way to get feedback from a large group of people. Surveys are generally quite a cost-effective strategy, because after the initial design and launching of your survey, there’s usually minimal added cost for each survey response you receive. Additionally, surveys are so commonly used that most people are pretty comfortable sharing their insights through a survey administered online, on paper or on the phone.
March 23, 2012 - 3:29am
Two survey personal experiences I had recently point out some good – and bad – practices. You may have had similar experiences.
February 22, 2012 - 7:18pm
Have you ever surveyed your program participants, and wanted to “fine-tune” your survey as you went? Or have you wondered how to take a retrospective look at results when your surveys have changed over time or when you have multiple survey occurrences? We often work with programs that have several iterations of participant surveys, administered to reach people who participated at different times. The survey structure might also change over time; sometimes different response scales are used, and sometimes new questions are added or omitted to be relevant to different programs.
January 18, 2012 - 8:16pm
Traditionally, many of us think of evaluation as a tool for reporting program results back to a funder. But, evaluation doesn’t stop there. Evaluation is important to funders too; it can serve a critical a role in helping funders reach their goals. Funders do have a unique position which allows them to approach evaluation from different directions; they can conduct their own evaluations, do analysis of the evaluations of their grantees, or some combination. Some things funders consider about evaluation are:
January 18, 2012 - 8:15pm
For over two years, Improve Group staff has been fortunate enough to work with several of Minnesota’s Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) grantees. Through SHIP, grantees in each of Minnesota’s 87 counties and several tribes were charged with making policy, systems and environmental changes in schools, communities, worksites and healthcare facilities to help reduce obesity and tobacco use in our State.
November 22, 2011 - 7:09pm
No matter how fantastic your program is, unless it is completely comprehensive (i.e., the Mars isolation experiment), other, external factors will influence how much your participants succeed.