Event Date: 2026-11-02 The Evaluators' Institute Deadline: 2026-10-29
Strategic planning is becoming a common practice for governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and collaborations. The severe stresses facing these entities make strategic planning more important and necessary than ever. For strategic planning to be really effective it should include systematic learning informed by evaluation. This course examines the theory and practice of strategic planning and management with an emphasis on practical approaches to identifying and effectively addressing organizational challenges – and doing so in a way that makes systematic learning and evaluation possible. The approach engages evaluators much earlier in the process of organizational and programmatic design and change than is usual. Topics covered include understanding why strategic planning has become so important; understanding what strategic planning is – and is not; the Strategy Change Cycle; key strategic planning tools and techniques; and designing formative, summative, and developmental evaluations of strategic planning processes, missions, strategies, and organizational performance.
Event Date: 2026-11-04 The Evaluators' Institute Deadline: 2026-11-02
This course will introduce a range of basic quantitative and qualitative social science research methods that apply to evaluating various programs. This foundational course introduces methods developed more fully in other TEI courses and serves as a critical course designed to ensure a basic familiarity with a range of social science research methods and concepts. Topics will include qualitative research with a special emphasis on focus groups and interviews, experimental design, quasi-experimental design, and survey research methods. This course is suitable for those who want to update their existing knowledge and skills and will serve as an introduction for those new to the topic.
Evaluators are frequently in evaluation situations in which they are collecting data through multiple methods, often both qualitative and quantitative. Too often, however, these study components are conducted and reported independently, and do not maximize the explanation building that can occur through their integration. The purpose of this course is to sensitize evaluators to the opportunities in their work for designing and implementing mixed methods, and to be more intentional in the ways that they design and implement their studies to integrate qualitative and quantitative approaches. This highly interactive course will begin with an overview of the issues involved with mixed-methods research, then focus on the research questions and evaluation situations that are conducive for mixed-methods, and the variety of designs that are possible. A significant portion of the course will be on strategies for implementing mixed-methods designs and analyzing the data to maximize their integration.
Training is one of the most common ways social programs build knowledge, strengthen awareness, shift attitudes, and encourage behavior change. MEL is a program management approach that uses evidence from monitoring and evaluation to strengthen programs through learning. However, the “learning” component of MEL often falls short when participants lack the support and skills training needed to connect individual program activities to long-term organizational goals. For this reason, MEL is included in this course. This course explores how training creates change—and how evaluators can determine whether that change is meaningful. Through interactive activities, participants will learn how to plan, conduct, and manage evaluations of training/capacity-building/MEL efforts. Participants will explore challenges in evaluating training, capacity building, knowledge management, and MEL efforts, as well as strategies for mitigating those challenges. The role of AI and its inherent risks will also be considered in relation to training and MEL evaluation.
Event Date: 2026-12-31 Eval Academy Deadline: 2026-12-31
Master Data Collection for Your Program Evaluation.