Evaluation practice 4.6 explores the RUFDATA framework when planning an evaluation. Amongst other things, RUFDATA invites you to consider ‘agency’ i.e. who should be the agency conducting the evaluations? Once agency has been determined those responsible and accountable for leading and managing this within the project team will need to be identified including responsibility for checking any organisational and ethical considerations (see evaluation practice 3.5).
Deciding on agency needs careful consideration. It is important to realise that the person/people doing the evaluation should not necessarily be the same as those doing/delivering the intervention. Thus, while as an educator and practitioner leading the intervention it is your responsibility to identify your theory of change (see evaluation practice 1.2) and the appropriate methods to determine if desired goals (outputs, outcomes and ultimately impact) have been achieved, you may not be the best or most appropriate person to carry out the evaluation. For example, even given appropriate ethical safeguards, due to power differentials/dynamics students may give you the answers they think you want not what they think (especially if you are likely to be continuing to teach and assess them in the future!). Thus, it is important to establish who is the best agency to conduct the evaluation itself especially if it involves approaches like focus groups where the evaluator is trying to solicit narratives from students.
This then leads to making appropriate plans for resourcing, ensuring specific members of the project team take responsibility for evaluation of the initiative, following the guidance set out here and attending or accessing the OCAED workshop resources for 'Evaluating teaching, learning and assessment initiatives and projects' available on Staff Learning. As already highlighted in evaluation practice 4.6 student-led evaluations can create the conditions for an open and honest exchange of views amongst groups of students e.g. in a focus group setting. As a result they are much more likely to generate reliable information on the effectiveness of any activity to inform on-going development. There are of course other alternatives (as required) such as independent (external) evaluators and researchers/staff from another school or faculty who do not teach the students concerned. It just needs careful planning. If the project lead and / or those in the project team responsible for evaluation need further help, they can approach OCAED on ocaed@brookes.ac.uk.
A final word on resource. The resource including time spent on evaluation should be proportional to the resource spent on the intervention itself. This while evaluation is important, it is also important not to over-evaluate.