Quality

Reading Cooksey & Caricelli (2005) on Quality, Context and Use : Issues in Achieving the Goals of Metaevaluation.

There are many defined standards of quality and they basically relate to the evaluation models which are used in a study. Each model has a number of criteria under which a study can be evaluated against and therefore any metaevaluation must take into account these quality standards.

That brings me to the question in regards to my own study, what are the quality standards being employed. Since i have created a set of criteria based on a number of different models ie Scriven, Patton, Stufflebeam, Owen, Chesterton and Cummings. Should I be meeting with Stakeholders to find out what they constitute as quality for our context? This may help in turn, in ensuring the evaluation findings are put to better use (Johnson et al., 2005).

Another finding in this study referred to the lack of transparent information in the final reports. I'm finding in my search of the identified data (final project reports) the same thing, a lack of detailed data for a metaevaluation. The reports intended audience is different in the internal projects to the external projects.

The finding is that an organisation should identify what it may need from a metaevaluation and then ensure all evaluations that are conducted will one day be able to be metaevaluated. This would include defining the methodology in detail (for example).

What are we evaluating?

Some (many) of the project reports i have been reading seem to blur the line of evaluation. Every project has an outcome and most have a set of resources so that learning can be taken from the project and new knowledge and understanding created. However when evaluation is discussed in the report it tends to be the evaluation of these by-products of the project rather than of the projects' processes.

In addition, many of the projects discuss feedback on products (such as resources or programs that come as deliverables of the project) under the heading of evaluation. Is this the same? Different?

Form for me

This form is to allow me to enter the data i'm gathering from the reports.