
Articles
Explore our latest articles, developed by our team of evaluators and special guests, grounded in real-world experience to support your evaluation practice—whether you're a beginner or an expert.
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Creating A Qualitative Codebook
A codebook for qualitative research is a stand-alone document that contains a list of themes, codes, and definitions that you are using in your qualitative analysis. This article outlines the structure of a qualitative codebook as well as steps to follow to create your own.
New Infographic: 10 Tips For Running A Focus Group
By leveraging group dynamics and interactions, focus groups provide a platform for participants to build on ideas, challenge assumptions, and generate new insights. In this article, we present our top tips for running successful focus groups that are efficient and gather quality data.
New Template: Style Guide Template!
Whether you’re new to evaluation or if evaluation is your main role, this Style Guide Template is for anyone looking to create consistency among project documents.
The Art Of Writing Evaluation Questions
It seems so simple – just ask a question! But many new evaluators or side-of-desk evaluators struggle with confidence in creating good evaluation questions. This article shares a few tips for writing evaluation questions as well as an example of how I go from a client meeting to drafting evaluation questions.
SWOT Analysis: What Is It And How Do I Use It?
A SWOT is a tool commonly used at the beginning of a new venture or as part of a new strategic planning process. A SWOT in evaluation could be used as a data collection tool or to present evaluation findings and create recommendations. This article outlines what a SWOT analysis is and how to complete one.
New Template: Logic Model Template Using Canva Whiteboard
This Logic Model template is for anyone who wants to make Logic Models that look professional and visually interesting. This Canva design template can be customized to create your own Logic Model, suited to your evaluation needs. The professional design of this template makes it easy to create a visually interesting Logic Model to present to clients, share on a website, or submit in a report.
How To Combine Data From Multiple Sources For Cleaning And Analysis.
This article walks you step-by-step through the process we use when merging datasets from multiple sources.
How To Spot Common Budgeting Pitfalls.
Evaluations of any size tend to need to adhere to budgets, whether for financial or human resourcing constraints. There are certain pitfalls that can quickly derail your budget. This article will guide you through some of the most common budget pitfalls to help you plan and support you to stay on budget throughout your evaluation.
5 Tips For Ensuring Interviewer Safety.
In this article, we highlight the importance of ensuring interviewer safety to make the interview experience effective for collecting data and a positive experience for everyone involved!
New Infographic: 10 Tips For Designing Quality Reports!
Many of us have come across reports that feel cramped, unengaging, and let’s face it, a little bit boring! Dedicating some time to designing your report before writing can significantly affect its overall quality. By taking some time to focus on design, you can create a report that is not only refined and professional, but also visually appealing. Here are my 10 tips for designing quality reports!
Questions To Get You Thinking About Your Data
Data are only useful when used! They do no good buried in reports, sitting on shelves (or shared drives) hidden away. Data, particularly data from an evaluation, are begging to be discussed, contemplated, and put into action! This article discusses some ways to make sure your data are used.
Putting An Ethics Lens On Your Evaluation Planning
Ethical practice is a cornerstone of our evaluation work at Three Hive Consulting. Not only does ethical practice ensure we are doing right by everyone involved, but conducting evaluations ethically adds to the professionalization of our work. This article defines ethical practice and provides some recommendations for how you can apply an ethical lens to your evaluation.
Your Information Will Be Kept Confidential: Confidentiality And Anonymity In Evaluation
“Confidential” and “anonymous” are words we use quite a bit in the evaluation world. But do you know what they actually mean? This article explores some of these concepts and provides some tips on how to maintain confidentiality.
New Checklist: Information Request Checklist
Eval Academy just released a new checklist for anyone who’s about to start a new evaluation project. Use this checklist to make sure you’re gathering the information necessary to support your evaluation endeavour. This checklist can act as a support tool for you to make sure you have the context you need when starting an evaluation.
So You Want To Be A CE: How To Become A Credentialed Evaluator
In the first article of this installment, we covered what the CE designation is and is not, and talked a little bit about why you might get it. In this article, we will explore what you need to do to gain your CE designation.
What’s The Difference: Bias Versus Confounding?
In every research and evaluation project, it is important to identify and address sources of error that may impact the accuracy of your findings and the relevance of your recommendations. Here, we will look at what bias and confounding are (and are not), the differences between them, and important considerations to take to prepare for and address both in your next evaluation project.
New Tip Sheet: Tips For Conducting Interviews
Eval Academy just released a new tip sheet for Conducting Interviews. If you will be conducting interviews in your evaluation, then this tip sheet is for you! Whether you’re new to the process or have conducted interviews before, this tip sheet provides a good overview and refresher to make your next interview experience a great one.
New Infographic: Qualitative Data Saturation
Eval Academy just released a new infographic about qualitative data saturation. This infographic is for those who collect or who will be collecting qualitative data and are looking to support the validity of their results. It’s a helpful resource for those who are both new and experienced in evaluation!
What You Need To Know About Member Checking
While member checking is commonly used in qualitative research, it’s less commonly used in evaluation and we think that should change! In this article, we’ll review what member checking is and why, when, and how you should use it.
New Template: Canva Design Templates For Creating Your Qwn Logic Model!
Eval Academy just released two new Canva design templates for creating your own Logic Model! Whether you’re new to evaluation or if evaluation is your main role, these Canva design templates are for anyone who wants to design a Logic Model to be more visually appealing.