Theme: The use and usability of evaluation: Demonstrating and improving the usefulness of evaluation
Website: http://www.profbriefings.net/index.php/news/61-2017-annual-evaluation-conference
The theme of the 2017 Annual Evaluation Conference is Exploring the current uses of evaluation. Evaluation is a common term in the English language and means different things to different people. It is used in many different ways. We need to ensure that institutions and their staff who wish to “evaluate” their policies, programmes, projects and institutions know what that really means and what they will gain from the exercise. How, for example, does it differ from an audit, or monitoring, or a review? Is it the same as research? Can they use evaluation to measure impact, or success? Is it conducted before, during or after taking action, is it an external or internal exercise, who is involved, how are its conclusions communicated?
Emphases on different types of use of evaluation change over time. These have included focus on accountability, establishing impact, formative and developmental evaluation to improve implementation, and generation of evidence to learn about what works.