When designing a program evaluation strategy, one of the earliest steps in the process is to develop evaluation questions. But what are evaluation questions, and how can they help us?
Evaluation Questions
Evaluation questions are big-picture questions that guide the overall evaluation efforts. They’re often anchored in the primary goals or objectives for the program and look at both program and process outcomes.
Program and Process Outcomes
Program outcomes focus on the impact of a particular program on its participants or beneficiaries. Did they gain a new skill? Did they become more confident? Did they get a new job?
Process outcomes focus on how participants or beneficiaries experience the delivery of the program. Did registration run smoothly? Was the facilitator effective? Did the organization communicate well?
Example Evaluation Questions
Here are some example evaluation questions for a fictitious program called Let’s Goal.
How To Use Evaluation Questions
Once we have the evaluation questions in place, we design the evaluation strategy and tools to collect the data that will best help us answer those questions.
