This should be read in conjunction with 'how do I make the most out of the evaluation?' A stakeholders analysis can be conducted with each of your stakeholder groups to identify those who they believe should be involved.

Accessing those group who are sometimes called ‘hard-to-reach’ may involve different methods that are sensitive and appeal to their involvement. With a large number of potential participants you may wish to use a system that gives an equal opportunity of being chosen.

It is essential to assess the potential strengths and weaknesses of each method of evaluation to ensure that the information required can be achieved, providing that the evaluator has the appropriate level of skill. This is also important in terms of maintaining funder or contractor confidence.

The aim is to minimise ‘bias’, which can be created by the method used or the way the method is used. This is a key good practice principle, because it is important to be able to assess the level of confidence in your results.

Methods of evaluation usually fall in to two categories: quantitative – facts and figures and qualitative – reasons, explanations and opinions.

Methods of evaluation include:

Each can be built upon or repeated to demonstrate change, Interviews – structured, semi-structured, focus groups. Focus groups can be used for identifying questions for other techniques, group or individual logbooks, observational studies, questionnaires – postal or face-to-face.

For larger scale projects, it may be possible to consider issues of sampling. Sampling is used to make inferences about a population from a relatively small number of observations that are assumed to be representative of the population.

A ‘sampling frame’ is a list of the elements you are trying to sample – for example, postcodes for household surveys. The key question is – how large does the sample need to be?

Organisations and communities

This should be read in conjunction with 'how do I make the most out of the evaluation?' and 'when is the right time to evaluate?'

Regen West Midlands
enquiries@regenwm.org

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Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment

Research & innovation, Training