Tip Tuesday - Planning Evaluation for a Successful Year

Evaluation – you may know it as that topic tacked on toward the end of a training or presentation. Too often, we think of it as something at the end, if we think of it at all.

Successful peer education programs integrate evaluation into everything they do from the beginning. With the school year starting, now is the perfect time to start implementing an evaluation plan to measure the effectiveness of your peer education efforts.

What Do You Want to Measure?

There are many things that groups can measure. The first step is deciding what will be most informative to you and your purposes. Are you creating reports for continued funding? Are you conducting peer education as part of a larger curriculum? Are you simply interested in how students are responding to educational efforts?

List out what you want to know and why. Think of this as the “what” and “so what.” If the evaluation results are simply placed into a folder, never to be seen again, what’s the point? Evaluation should lead to additional action.

Think about which measures will reveal how well the program is doing. Here are a few things to consider:

• Counting attendees at an event can provide some basic level of information. How do the numbers compare to previous, similar events? Is there a relationship between marketing efforts and attendance? Are there lessons that peer educators can learn about planning an event?
• Having attendees complete a brief evaluation can be helpful, but it depends on what you ask. Weigh the usefulness of asking about how people enjoyed a presentation versus if they learned anything. Incorporate a few learning objectives and measure if people reached those as a result of the session/event.
• How are you measuring peer educators’ experience and growth? Are there learning objectives to achieve while involved in the program? What would an advisor hope that students learn? What would peer educators hope to learn?
• Why do students get involved in the first place? Is the peer education program meeting those expectations? Why or why not?
• Do you track peer educators’ growth and learning from year to year? If so, how are you using this information? Is it shared with anyone else?
• If you are not yet participating, consider utilizing the National Peer Educator Study (NPES).
• And, don’t forget the big question, “Is peer education helping change harmful behaviors?” How will you know and how do you find out?
• If your program IS changing harmful behaviors, how will you continue that and make improvements?
• If your program IS NOT changing harmful behaviors, is that acceptable? Why or why not? What adjustments can be made to increase the impact?
• How is the data compiled, analyzed, and shared back with those who need to know? Can you utilize a graduate student to help with this process?

Start now with your evaluation plan, going month by month, working it into all your programs. Overall, we want students to have a meaningful experience as peer educators, and we want those we serve to have gained from our efforts. Evaluation helps to refocus and better advance toward these goals.