Essential Skills Series - The Fundamentals of Evaluation

CES-NS is offering the Essential Skills Series as a facilitated online course. This course is designed for individuals new to evaluation. The course provides instruction on how to plan and conduct an evaluation and covers the evaluation landscape in Canada including evaluation standards, competencies, and guidance for ethical practice. You’ll have the opportunity to solidify your learning by working through an evaluation planning case study throughout the course.

Sessions will be completed over the course of 10 weeks with learners engaging in self- directed learning to complete the requirements of the course. Facilitation will be offered via weekly online learning and discussion sessions, email support to learners, and review, feedback, and monitoring of course assignments and discussion posts as required for a certificate.

Facilitated Sessions (via Zoom):

Wednesdays, 10:00-12:30 AT

• July 17: Modules 1 – 3
• July 31: Modules 4–5
• August 14: Modules 6–8
• August 28: Modules 9 – 10

Facilitator:

Nancy Carter, PhD CE, is an evaluation strategist, consultant and coach. She brings to the course a background in social science, organizational behaviour, and 20+ years of designing, implementing and teaching evaluation across various sectors to support learning. Nancy is a member of the CES Credentialing Board and contributes to the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation as a reviewer and member of the editorial board.

Please note - registered participants will recieve a link to access the course content and the zoom meeting invites by July 2nd.

Please reach out with any questions to: admin@cesns.ca

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Describe the role of evaluation in the program life cycle;
• Explain common evaluation terms, functions, and approaches;
• List the steps in planning and conducting an evaluation;
• Describe how common social science data collection methods are used in evaluations;
• Describe the value and use of project management concepts in evaluations;
• Outline ways to support the use of evaluation findings and produce actionable evaluation reports; and
• Recognize evaluation standards and ethical principles and identify their role in the professionalization of evaluation in Canada.

Prerequisites: None

This is an entry-level course; no prior knowledge or experience related to evaluation is required. This course is designed for those who are new to program evaluation or to those wishing to ensure that their knowledge and skills used in their evaluation practice encompass all basic aspects of program evaluation.

Evaluation Competencies addressed:

[x] reflective; [x] technical; [x] situational; [x] management; [x] interpersonal