Evaluation What, How and Why Bother?

What? Evaluation is a daily human activity, an essential step in the process of integrating learning and moving on to new discoveries. Evaluation supports the desire to understand more deeply, see the truth more clearly and act more effectively (Gerry Moriarty author of ‘Sharing Practice’, a guide to self-evaluation in the context of social inclusion, Arts Council England 2002).

Evaluation: a process. an unbiased objective judgement about the value and quality of a project based on the analysis of collected qualitative and quantitative data. should take place at various stages in the project development. uses Information gathered from what people say and feel and what is observed or deduced 

Evaluation is central to decisions about Audiences Objectives Theme Interpretation methods Activities Orientation Displays

Why evaluate? To find out if your project is meeting its aims and objectives To make ongoing improvements from the very beginning To tell others and share lessons learned To provide evidence of what participants have learned To involve everyone and create a sense of ownership To develop relationships with visitors and get to know visitors To develop ideas and plan future projects To provide financial, social and/or environmental evidence of the benefits of your project  

If you don’t evaluate: Waste time Waste money Produce something that you can’t change Lose interest from your target audience Lose a good opportunity to learn something useful Lose an opportunity to tell people about the good work you are doing Lose funding

Before the project – formative and front-end Stages of Evaluation Before the project – formative and front-end During the project – formative After the project - summative

Objectives and Outcomes Objectives: stages in achieving your aim; project-related Outcomes: what you want participants/visitors to achieve; people-related

are all the resources you put into the project to enable you to deliver your Inputs may include time, money and premises. Inputs / resources are the number of products and services you deliver as part of your work and numbers of people involved etc Outputs result of your work. They can be wanted or unwanted, expected or unexpected. Are the changes, benefits, learning or other effects that happen as a Outcomes Relate to the longer term effect after a range of outcomes have been achieved Impacts  

Qualitative: uses Information gathered from what people say and feel and think and do and what is observed or deduced Quantitative: What can be counted or measured Statistical information

Good-quality services and development The museum must do the following: 3.1.1 understand who its users and non-users are 3.1.2 evaluate and analyse information to assess users’ needs 3.1.3 devise plans to broaden its range of users 3.1.4 have a culture of customer care with arrangements in place to make sure all users are treated with courtesy and care 3.1.5 take account of users’ needs, guided by a policy statement setting out a commitment to give everyone access to collections and associated information 3.1.6 respond to tourism and local priorities where appropriate

User-focused experience The museum must: 3.2.1 have adequate and accessible facilities to meet the needs of the expected number and range of users or provide information about nearby facilities 3.2.2 have appropriate signs and directions inside and outside the building 3.2.3 communicate effectively with users and potential users through a range of accessible marketing and promotional activities

Effective learning experiences The museum must: 3.3.1 exhibit the collections using a variety of interpretative methods 3.3.2 provide access to the collections and associated information for research purposes and other forms of engagement 3.3.3 provide effective and stimulating learning and discovery experiences focused on the collections

Analyse by asking questions such as: To what extent were the project aim and objectives achieved? How do you know? What evidence do you have? What impact did the project have on the participants? How do you know? What evidence do you have? Were there any unexpected outcomes? (you need to identify these and why they may have occurred) What you would do differently next time?