Develop an evaluation plan

An evaluation plan clearly identifies your stakeholders and their interest in an evaluation (i.e., what do they want to know about the program?). This can help with the decision about whether a formative, process or summative evaluation is most appropriate. Decisions must also be made about evaluation questions to be answered, measures to be used, samples (size, control, or not, randomized or not), and frequency and means of data collection. Although evaluation is often not mentioned until a program is near finished, addressing it earlier in the planning process can help with important decisions about how to design the program itself.

Resources

At a glance: The ten steps for conducting an evaluation

Public Health Ontario

This handout summarizes the ten-step process for developing an evaluation plan. Related worksheets and tools to help you complete each step are noted, along with tips for efficient, effective completion of each step. This is a great overview and checklist for both new and seasoned practitioners.

Annotated inventory of evaluation tools and resources.

Snelling S, Bennett A.. Sudbury (ON): Sudbury & District Health Unit, Public Health Research, Education and Development (PHRED)

This Public Health Research, Education & Development (PHRED) Program inventory presents summaries of 12 evaluation tools and resources that are high quality, applicable to public health, and easy to use. The selection of resources was based on an extensive review by PHRED evaluation staff and driven by a key informant consultation. Information on the 12 resources is summarized in an “at-a-glance” table that identifies the title of the resource and the organization that produced it, the focus of the resources, whether the resource is available in French, the appropriate user group (based on the extent of previous experience with program evaluation), and whether the resource is a workbook that will walk the user through the process of conducting a program evaluation. [From website]

Evaluation methods: An HPC resource list

Health Promotion Clearinghouse, Nova Scotia

Within this resource list you will find a variety of information from Canadian and international sources on the topic of evaluation. It is organized into four sections: overview, documents, organizational links and other tools. The list is updated monthly. The HPC maintains other resource lists on topics such as: aboriginal health; advocacy and policy development; board development; community development and community capacity building; evaluation methods; facilitation techniques; proposal and grant writing; social marketing; using research information for community health promotion and much more.