Support - Evaluation and Evidence Gathering
UCL's approach
From the outset, the PE Unit at UCL has invested significantly in evaluation and evidence gathering. Their goal is to ensure that insight, intelligence and evidence are used
- To improve quality
- To inform strategic developments
- To demonstrate impact and value for money
One of their first activities was to commission a baseline survey, to identify the barriers preventing staff and students getting involved. The findings have helped to shape their operations.
The Unit now employs a part time evaluation specialist, working three days a week for the Unit. Gemma Moore plays two roles: formally evaluating the beacon project, and also supporting staff to plan how they can evaluate their own PE activities and projects.
Gemma’s approach to evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the UCL-led Beacon for Public Engagement programme is formative and ongoing: although there is a six month reporting framework, with summary reports submitted, much of the value of her input is day-to-day, feeding insights back to the team. Underpinning her work is an evaluation framework which builds on the five core aims set for the Unit, and which Gemma generated with expert input from evaluation and public engagement specialists from UCL’s academic staff. The evaluation framework: ‘tries to break down what these aims really mean, and what are the indicators that we should be looking for, and the kind of questions we need to ask to understand if, and how, our activities have met these aims’.
The framework acts as a guide for the evaluation of the overall UCL-led Beacon for Public Engagement programme. Not every project is evaluated against the whole framework, and it serves more as a menu to pick from, helping staff and students to focus on the key outcomes intended for a project, and the best ways to gather evidence to assess whether they are being achieved. You can view a range of project evaluations here.
Evaluation is used consistently to learn from programme and project activities and to help shape the strategic activity of the Unit. In 2009, to inform their support for early career researchers, the Unit hosted an intern who conducted qualitative research with researchers, and the subsequent report has significantly shaped their approach. You can access the report here.
‘I see my role as that of a critical friend and a repository, sharing knowledge, and acting as a broker as well, linking people to each other.’ (Gemma Moore)
You can access a fuller account of the Unit’s evaluation work.
Resources:
- We have a range of resources to assist you in evaluation, see here for our Introduction to Evaluation guide.
- The unit has produced an evaluation guide to support staff across UCL and a short guide to evaluating public events;
Other approaches
CUE East, the beacon at UEA, also conducted a baseline survey. You can read a full account of how they went about it here.
The ‘How to do it’ area of our site contains practical guidance on how to evaluate public engagement activities.
RCUK have also produced a useful overview: Practical Guidelines to Evaluation
What's next?
Find out how UCL and others tackled the following area.
