Evaluation 15 credits

About the course

The social and political significance of evaluation as a research-based activity is growing. Evaluations need to be of high quality and informative. Against this background, this course examines evaluation as theory and as practice. Topics covered include: different evaluation models; how to design evaluations for specific purposes; how to assess the quality of evaluations (meta-evaluation); problems which professional evaluators often come across.

Module 1: Evaluation as practice. 7,5 hp

Module 1 of the course studies evaluation as a social phenomenon, as practice and as a skill. Topics covered in this part of the course include: What is policy and programme evaluation? How does evaluation differ from research? What societal developments explain the growth of evaluation and monitoring systems? How does evaluation relate to the "evidence" debate? From a more practical perspective, the course introduces different evaluation models and discusses how to design evaluations for specific purposes.  

Module 2: The evaluation society and evaluation use, 7,5 hp

Module 2 of the course addresses the following questions: What kind of problems are professional evaluators often confronted with in the course of their work? How are evaluations used? How can we assess the quality of evaluations (meta-evaluation).