Thursday, May 14, 11:00am Eastern
Title: Dynamic Data for Informed Decision-Making: Ethical, Transparent, and Practical Dashboards Using Excel
Abstract: Creating credible, ethical, and just-in-time dashboards, reporting tables, and estimates is essential for informing decisions that affect people, programs, and systems. Yet many evaluators and analysts experience a persistent gap between the data they have and the decision-making conversations they want to influence. This hands-on workshop supports participants in closing that gap by using ubiquitous, accessible tools—specifically Excel—to create transparent, adaptable, and decision-relevant data products. Participants will learn how to prepare data for dashboards, build dynamic tables, design visuals and use referral values for estimation tools, that responsibly support interpretation and use. Grounded in Evaluation Canada’s Ethical Guidance, the session emphasizes practices that uphold rights, truth, transparency, accountability, and integrity. Participants will explore how design choices, assumptions, and automation (including the use of AI-enabled features) can either strengthen or undermine ethical decision-making. Practical examples and facilitated discussion will help participants reflect on how to present data in ways that are accurate, ethical, and respectful of context—particularly when data may inform high-stakes or equity-related decisions. The workshop is designed to be flexible: participants may follow along step-by-step or observe and reflect, making the workshop accessible to a range of experience levels while maintaining a shared focus on practical tools.
Speakers: Carolyn Hoessler
Type: Half day workshop, 3 hours
Language: English
Presenters' expertise: Carolyn Hoessler, PhD, CE, PMP, has led and co-facilitated over twenty-five invited national, provincial, and external workshops, nine national and international peer-reviewed conference workshops, and dozens of internal workshops spanning evaluation, analysis, statistics, leadership, online facilitation, empowering diverse voices, instructional skills, and embedding equity in educational design. Aligned with a focus on useful, meaningful, and ethically grounded program improvement, Carolyn designs workshops that bridge methodological rigor with real-world decision contexts. She brings extensive experience supporting local, institutional, and national professional associations through work in evaluation, change leadership, stakeholder engagement, and data-informed decision-making. Carolyn Hoessler, PhD, CE, PMP, has led and co-facilitated over twenty-five invited national, provincial, and external workshops, nine national and international peer-reviewed conference workshops, and dozens of internal workshops spanning evaluation, analysis, statistics, leadership, online facilitation, empowering diverse voices, instructional skills, and embedding equity in educational design. Aligned with a focus on effective, meaningful, and ethically grounded program improvement, Carolyn designs workshops that bridge methodological rigor with real-world decision contexts. She brings extensive experience supporting local, institutional, and national professional associations through work in evaluation, change leadership, stakeholder engagement, and data-informed decision-making. Carolyn’s facilitation approach emphasizes developing shared understanding of core principles, integrating multiple perspectives through dialogue, and
Level: Beginner
Prerequisite knowledge: This workshop is designed for participants with basic familiarity with Excel, though a range of comfort levels is expected. To make the most of our half-day together, this workshop will provide an introductory guide in advance for fundamentals, better data entry and layout. No prior experience with dashboards or AI tools is required. Excel software can be PC or Mac. The use of a generalist AI will be modelled though the type (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) is flexible.
Learning objectives:
By the end of this workshop,
1) Participants will be able to create dashboards and prepare data for dashboards that support accuracy, offer traceability for transparency, and fit with context.
2) Participants will be able to dynamically adjust tables and referral values to further inform and accountable decision-making.
3) Participants will be able to create slicers, visuals, and value-based considerations for more dynamic engagement of decision makers.
Teaching strategies : The workshops will provide an orientation to session, and the facilitated hands-approach utilized for most of the session. As this session focuses on skill development with contextual and value-based considerations, I model the process with explanations that some choose to watch and others enact, followed by a step-by-step run-through that some enact, some watch to confirm their earlier practice, and some use to play and repeat. We repeat this cycle for preparation, pivot tables, visuals, slicers, referral values, and more. Contextual considerations and values are considered throughout, and questions are addressed.