At ESS, education and learning are central to what we do. We believe that by learning how to evaluate your own activity you will discover what works or doesn’t, and how to make use of that learning to measure the difference you are making.
In this wrap up of our education and learning theme you will find resources, evaluation stories, and updates, that we have shared during this theme!
We kicked-off the theme by celebrating Book Lover’s Day! A day to celebrate literature and reading!
To mark the occasion, ESS Board Member Katherine Wilkinson – Head of Research and Evaluation at Scottish Book Trust – shared how SBT approach evaluation and make use of their learning! Find the blog here.
“As well as publishing evaluation reports, we also hold internal reflection sessions, helping us to ensure our evaluations are both useful and used.”
Throughout the theme we shared resources. Such as our guide ‘Learning from evaluation’.
Learning, and acting on your learning, is a key part of the evaluation cycle. You collect and analyse information for a purpose, typically so that you can…
- Improve by changing your practice, or by influencing policy
- Prove that you make a difference
Our guide ‘Learning from Evaluation’ is designed to help you make better use of evidence and insight to identify learning about what works, for who, and in what circumstances. Find the guide here.
Helping You Share Your Learning (workbook)
This workbook can help you pinpoint what learning you have that would be helpful to share. As well as consider who to share it with, what you want to achieve by sharing, and the best way to go about it.
Working with University Researchers and Staff: Getting Started
To get started with an academic collaboration, all that is needed is your time and openness to collaborate! This resource aims to introduce researchers and staff members in third sector
ESS Evaluation Tool: Evaluation Wheel – Employability Skills Wheel
Creative and flexible tool to collect information on outcomes in a simple and accessible manner.
Making it stick – A guide to embedding evaluation
Guide for people who have a role in making sure that evaluation is embedded into everyday practice within an organisation.
During the theme, we introduced our new ‘resource sessions’!
These free online sessions offer a quick introduction to a particular ESS resource, as well as tips on how you could use it in your organisation. The sessions present the opportunity to ask questions and learn how to get the most out of our resources! Find out more about resource sessions here.
We invited people to join the Evaluation Leaders Network!
The Evaluation Leaders Network (ELN) is for people in the third sector who have responsibility for making evaluation happen in their organisation. Sessions involve discussing and sharing with each other in an action learning approach.
Our infographic details the rewards and challenges of being an Evaluation Leader, as identified by the members of the network.
If you find that these rewards and challenges resonate with you… why not join your peers in the Evaluation Leaders’ Network? Click here to learn more about the ELN.
We also shared Evaluation Stories.
Our evaluation stories showcase how self-evaluation has helped different organisations, and aims to inspire others to think about their own evaluation!
The evaluation stories below feature organisations whose work supports education and learning.
Evaluation Stories
Music 4 U
A range of support from ESS helped Music 4 U get to grips with evaluation, and got their team all on the same page.
Evaluation Stories
Girlguiding Scotland
Via tailored support we helped Girlguiding Scotland with their understanding of evaluation basics, & helped them learn about mapping project outcomes to strategic outcomes.
Evaluation Stories
Edinburgh School Uniform Bank
Edinburgh School Uniform Bank received tailored support to help them with their evaluation methods.
Follow along on social media as we begin our next theme!
