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- Study guide
- Module 1
- Topic 1: What is Student Digital Civic Engagement?
- Topic 2: How is Digital Civic Engagement Impacting Universities (and Beyond)?
- Topic 3: What Competences do Student Civic Engagers Develop?
- Topic 4: What does Student Digital Civic Engagement Look Like in Practice?
- Evaluation test for module 1
- Resources and further studies (Module 1)
- Module 2
- Topic 1: Problems that need solving – spotlight on global issues
- Topic 2: Improving your community through civic engagement
- Topic 3: Taking a service-learning approach to an DCE project
- Topic 4: DCE is building your competency levels. Here are the opportunities
- Evaluation test for module 2
- Resources and further studies (Module 2)
- Module 3
- Topic 1: What Do Great Digital Civic Engagement Projects Include?
- Topic 2: Getting Involved In Your First Digital Civic Engagement Project/ Initiative
- Topic 3: Using Technology To Enhance Your Civic Engagement Work
- Topic 4: Designing/ Delivering Digital Civic Engagement Solutions
- Evaluation test for module 3
- Resources and further studies (Module 3)
- Module 4
- Module 5
- Topic 1: Estimating Project Costs And Financial Needs
- Topic 2: Spotlight On Lean Start Up and Sustainable Business Model Canvas
- Topic 3: Crowdfunding Your Civic Engagement Projects /Causes
- Topic 4: Leveraging the power of corporate social responsibility
- Evaluation test for module 5
- Resources and further studies (Module 5)
- Module 6
- Topic 1: Why Building Credibility, Trust and Relationships are Key
- Topic 2: Cultivating and Growing a Student Civic Engagement Community
- Topic 3: Spotlight on Mission Marketing
- Topic 4: Technology Tools to Help You Share and Spread Your Civic Engagement Work
- Evaluation test for module 6
- Resources and further studies (Module 6)
Topic 4: Evaluating Your Impact
This section highlights the importance of evaluation and why it is done within project management. Learners will be able to understand how to evaluate a project as well as recognise the benefits to doing so.
What is evaluation, and why evaluate a project’s impact?
Evaluation is a structured process by which a project’s activities are assessed and understood.
Evaluation is a continuous tracking, analysing and interpretation of data related to the project in order to identify achievements.
Evaluation can also highlight weaknesses allowing to adjust and improve aspects of the project as it progresses.
Evaluation can establish the following:
- Learn from previous experiences- what went right, what could be done better in the future?
- Check progress- is the project making progress, are we establishing the goals of what we set out to achieve?
- Establish a plan for the future, with a clear timeline.
- Help display progress to funders and key stakeholders.
How to evaluate the impact and success of your project?
- There are many ways to evaluate your SDCE project. One way is to visualise the future, sometime after the project has completed.
- Imagine what did the project do well on. Did it achieve what the team set out to achieve? Think about what might have gone wrong, and how you could have fixed it.
When we think about what the project achieved, these are called Impacts. Impacts can be seen as what changes and differences occurred due to the project’s creation.
The impacts can measure four different aspects of a SDCE project:
- The project members
- The establishment behind the project
- The beneficiaries of the project
- The systems and procedures in place behind the project.
When we want to evaluate the impact of our projects, we identify data sources.
These are the sources of information that we can use to help identify the success of our project’s impacts. Data sources can include questionnaires, surveys, interviews, focus groups and observation. It is important to gather feedback at various stages of the project, as it can help to ensure that any issues or risks are dealt with, and to ensure the success of the project.
When we have gathered the data, and identified the impacts, it is now time to assess and act on the information we have found. This is a time where we evaluate the successes of the project so far, and the goals that have been established. Is the project on track? Have the objectives been met? What could be done differently or more efficiently? At this stage it is important to assess all information well, to ensure the project’s success in the future.
Quick Test
