Design your Evaluation

This is to present you short introduction and useful tips about process of the evaluation. Ask yourself the following questions and decide on the course of action.

What do you want to investigate/evaluate? What are the success criteria of the project and of the evaluation? What is the focus of the evaluation? Which method and questions can give you the needed information?
Do you want to test a given hypothesis or do you want to explore and open up for new perspectives? (quantitative of qualitative method? – Open or closed questions?)
Are the respondents passive or active in the evaluation process?
Do you want to investigate the answers of the respondents as a consequence of the cultural event (cause and effect – Science ideal of Positivism) or do you investigate the hole context to understand more dynamics of the area and the context of the answers and interviews?
Do you want to capture the thoughts of the respondents as truths or do you see their answers as constructivist, where both interviewer and respondent frame the reality?
Do you aim to capture thoughts, feelings or interactions?
How do you want to distribute your questionnaire? Where do you reach your target group? What time do you reach them? Who is your target group and why?
Do you ask or interview your respondents in the moment of the ongoing event or cultural project, or do you interview them after the event to highlight want they remember as important after a month for example? Do you intend to investigate the perception of the event in the present or evaluate the change of a given project over time?
Is your questionnaire anonymous or not? How does this affect the answers of the respondents?
Test your questionnaire for interpretations and misunderstandings.

Quantitative Data Processing

Response rate – how many citizens are represented in the questionnaire?
Do the respondents represent the citizens of the area – who is missing? Who is strongly represented in the evaluation? (age, gender, place of residence, social economic level, cultural experience etc.) How does this impact the results of the evaluation?