Evaluation and Performance Management

Area of Interest: Government and Leadership

Course Summary

Learn how to improve your organisations performance through effective evaluation. Designed for those working in and around the public sector, this introductory course examines the core aspects of implementing effective evaluation practices. This includes the use of program theories in evaluation and change processes, evidence types and their uses, and data collection approaches.

On completion of this course, you’ll have skills in designing and analysing data to create formative and summative evaluations, and in designing data collections to monitor program implementation and identifying risks

Duration: 1 Day

Delivery Mode: In-person

Course Content

This course is broken into the following core learning topics:

• Program theories in public service evaluation and change processes.
• Types of available evidence and the context they should be used.
• Qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection including focus groups, interviews, surveys and participatory research.
• Program monitoring and risk identification.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, you will:

• Understand how to create more effective evaluations.
• Apply program theories of change to improve evaluation efficacy.
• Develop skills to integrate evaluation earlier in program implementation and to commission evaluations with more confidence.

Who should attend

This course is for those working in and around the public sector, at all levels of government, who have, or want to have, responsibility for improving organisational performance through improved evaluation.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Facilitator

Professor Deborah Blackman is the Head of School, and a member of the Public Service Research Group, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra.

Her research interests include Public Sector Policy Implementation, Systems Level Change, Employee Performance Management, Organisational Learning and Organisational Effectiveness.

She researches knowledge transfer in a range of applied, real world contexts. The common theme of her work is developing effective knowledge acquisition and transfer to improve organisational effectiveness.

Dr Vanessa McDermott

Dr Vanessa McDermott is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra and convenor of the UNSW Canberra Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel.

Her research interests include corporate governance and organisational culture (private and public sector), how organisations communicate and manage behaviour change initiatives and the impact, positively or negatively, on perceptions of organisational legitimacy, accountability and trust.

She conducts evaluations of programs and initiatives in the public and corporate sectors, translating findings into actionable recommendations for change that seeks to influence policy and achieve positive outcomes for communities and individuals.