Developing an evaluation strategy for development and training activities

Deanne Gannaway, Flinders University, South Australia

Surveys of evaluation practices in relation to educational development programmes showed that despite the majority of developers considering the conduct of systematic evaluation as integral to their activities, few activities were evaluated in a systematic fashion. This paper describes a project designed to develop a consistent, systematic evaluation and review procedure for university professional development, education and training activities. This project sought to develop a process that had a limited demand on resources such as administration time, yet still provided sufficient information that would support informed value judgements about professional development activities. To do this, a matrix was developed that comprised an overview of the evaluation strategies currently practiced in the Staff Development and Training Unit, identifying important gaps. Information and tools were sought to address these gaps, which would gather data via multileveled strategies and from multiple sources. The matrix was then used to conduct a critical review of development activities to categorise them into bands that signified the level of evaluation that would benefit future planning. This categorisation of activities into bands assisted in the development and refinement of a set of recommended evaluation strategies.