monitoring and evaluating in the phea educational technology initiative patrick spaven
TRANSCRIPT
Monitoring and Evaluating in the PHEA Educational Technology Initiative
Patrick Spaven
The Project Cycle
Carry out the projects
Monitor
Summative
evaluation
Plan projects – and plan to monitor and
evaluate them
Outside Stakeholders
ET Strategy
Formative
evaluation
Levels
1. Your projects
2. Your programme
3. The whole Initiative
Monitoring and evaluating your projects
Monitoring
The capture of data about the project regularly or continuously, usually in a consistent way.
Monitoring data can be expressed in numbers or concise narrative.
Evaluation
The all-round assessment of the performance of a project or programme
Uses data from monitoring plus those captured during the evaluation itself, e.g. qualitative interviews with key stakeholders
Uses of monitoring Provides up-to-date feedback on
performance of the project. Are we on track with: Inputs (use of resources)? Activities? Outputs? Short-term outcomes?
Contributes data to evaluations.
Uses of evaluation
Improvement - Are we doing the things right? Wider learning – What difference did we make?
Did we do the right things? Accountability – Did we do what stakeholders
expected? Advocacy – Look what we can do!
M & E M&E
In human development, where results are often unpredictable, monitoring and evaluation are tending to converge.
Monitoring should look beyond planned results
Evaluation should be a regular, timely, process.
Planning your M&E – the important questions
Why? For whom? What? How? When? Where?
Planning your M&E – why, for whom and what
Be clear why you are doing it – what use you and others will make of it.
Who are the main stakeholders? What do they need to know?
In this light, and bearing in mind the resources available, decide what you should M&E and on what scale.
Don’t plan to M&E anything that isn’t important to know about!
WHAT to M&E
Outcomes
Outputs
Activities
Inputs
WHAT to M&E
Outcomes = the changes the intervention helped to bring about (better educated students, more empowered academic staff) – both planned and unplanned
Outputs = the immediate, planned, results of the intervention (technicians and academic staff trained, courses re-engineered and launched on the LMS)
WHAT to M&E
Activities = the things you did to ensure you delivered the outputs (identify and contract trainers; research the software options and procure)
Inputs = the resources you used in your activities
Kirkpatrick’s 4 levels for evaluating training
Reactive: how they felt about the training Cognitive/affective: new knowledge, skills,
ideas, attitudes Behavioural: doing new things, doing things
differently Organisational/multiplier: effect on the
organisation; diffusing benefits to others
Planning M&E - indicators
Decide whether it would be helpful to develop indicators for these elements (inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes).
[The ETS LogFrame requires indicators for outputs]
Indicators are pre-defined, precise, pointers that help you assess performance against the background of the planned inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes.
Planning M&E - indicators
Examples: Proportion of activities in the project plan
completed on time Proportion of trainees who report that the training
either met or exceeded their expectations Numbers of students using the new LMS
applications Date when ETS was formally adopted by the
University XYZ Board
Planning M&E – indicators/targets
Indicators can be neutral as in the previous slide.
Or they can be expressed as targets if you are confident the targets are appropriate.
2000 students using the new LMS applications within 3 months of their launch
ETS formally adopted by the XYZ Board by October 2010
Planning M&E - indicators
Be careful not to let indicators narrow your perspective.
Outcomes in particular are often difficult to predict in advance. Look for unplanned effects of your interventions.
A few words about baselines and attribution
You have a qualitative picture of where your institution stands in ET4TL on the verge of ETI Part B.
But if you want to assess with precision the change that your intervention has promoted in a specific area – e.g. a change in attitudes or usage of ICT among a particular group - you may need to capture data on the baseline.
This research must obviously be built into your project plan and implemented before the project gets moving.
A few more words about baselines and attribution
Trying to measure some sorts of change and attribute it to your intervention can be difficult. The before and after groups may not be comparable – e.g. different student cohorts - and change may be influenced by extraneous factors.
Planning M&E - data
Work out HOW you are going to capture the data on inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes – including baseline data.
Bear in mind the cost, time and access issues in capturing the data. Don’t try to do too much. Use samples if appropriate.
Work out how you are going to process and analyse the data.
Project Logical Framework – optional except for outputs
Descriptors Performance indicators
Sources of verification
Risks/ assumptions
Long-term Outcomes
Should relate to ETS LogFrame
Should relate to ETS LogFrame
Should relate to ETS LogFrame
Should relate to ETS LogFrame
Outputs Key output relates to ETS
LogFrame
Key indicators relate to ETS
LogFrame
Key sources relate to ETS LogFrame
Key risks/
assumptions relate to ETS
LogFrame
Activities
Inputs
Questions to answer in a summative evaluation
Effectiveness (have we fulfilled the project objectives?)
Efficiency (have the resources – including time – been used optimally?)
Questions to answer with a summative evaluation
Impact (what difference have we made - intentionally or unintentionally?)
Sustainability (are the positive changes likely to last?)
Relevance of project (were we doing the right things?)
The Project Cycle
Carry out the projects
Monitor
Summative
evaluation
Plan projects – and plan to monitor and
evaluate them
Outside Stakeholders
ET Strategy
Formative
evaluation
Reporting on your projects
The MOA requires six monthly reporting on projects: Progress towards results and indicators A summary of problems and challenges
experienced Revised activity schedules for each project A budget variance report.
Reviewing projects
You will want to meet more frequently than that to review your projects. You will want to keep a note of what you conclude to feed into the six-monthly MOA reporting.
Your regular review of projects will inform a six-monthly programme-wide self-assessment.
Reviewing your projects
We suggest you ask these standard questions, among others, at your project review:
Have the activities and products been completed according to plan - in terms of both timing and quality? If not, why not? What have you done to address completion and quality challenges?
What benefits is the project producing – for people and the institution as a whole?
Are there any negative effects, if so what are they? What is being done to mitigate any negative effects?
Monitoring and evaluating your programme
The self-assessment process
Meeting of ETI core team plus project leaders every 6 months
4-6 hours Report in full, with 1-2 page summary
for MOA requirement (MOA also requires six-monthly reporting on projects, as we have seen).
Self-assessment at programme level
How is the overall ETI progressing? What are the main changes/outcomes that have
taken place for people and the institution as a whole – both positive and negative - as a result of the ETI?
Are there any outcomes/changes that you were expecting by now, but which have not taken place? If so, why do you think they haven’t taken place?
How useful has your ET Strategy been in this period? What specifically has it helped with?
Self-assessment at programme level
How is the overall ETI progressing? What aspects of your team’s work have been
most constructive and productive? Are there aspects of your team’s work that have
not worked well? If so, what are the probable reasons?
In what ways has the wider institution supported progress in the ETI?
Are there aspects of the wider institution that have hindered progress?
Self-assessment at programme level
How is the overall ETI progressing? What has been helpful to you in the work of the
SAIDE-CET team and the external evaluator What has not been helpful? What other support could they have given you
that would have been helpful?
ETS Logical Framework
Vision
Descriptors Performance indicators
Means of verification
Assumptions/
risks
Long-term Outcomes
Project outcomes should relate to them
ET Strategy Outputs
Key outputs from project plans
Defined in project plans
Defined in project plans
Defined in project plans