We are Kelly Robertson and Lyssa Wilson Becho, and we work on EvaluATE as well as several other projects at The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. We wanted to share a trick that has helped us keep track of our evaluation activities and better communicate the details of an evaluation plan with our clients. To do this, we take the most important information from an evaluation plan and create a summary that can serve as a quick-reference guide for the evaluation management process. We call these “evaluation plan cheat sheets.”

The content of each cheat sheet is determined by the information needs of the evaluation team and clients. Cheat sheets can serve the needs of the evaluation team (for example, providing quick reminders of delivery dates) or of the client (for example, giving a reminder of when data collection activities occur). Examples of items we like to include on our cheat sheets are shown in Figures 1-3 and include the following:

  • A summary of deliverables noting which evaluation questions each deliverable will answer. In the table at the top of Figure 1, we indicate which report will answer which evaluation question. Letting our clients know which questions are addressed in each deliverable helps to set their expectations for reporting. This is particularly useful for evaluations that require multiple types of deliverables.
  • A timeline of key data collection activities and report draft due dates. On the bottom of Figure 1, we visualize a timeline with simple icons and labels. This allows the user to easily scan the entirety of the evaluation plan. We recommend including important dates for deliverables and data collection. This helps both the evaluation team and the client stay on schedule.
  • A data collection matrix. This is especially useful for evaluations with a lot of data collection sources. The example shown in Figure 2 identifies who implements the instrument, when the instrument will be implemented, the purpose of the instrument, and the data source. It is helpful to identify who is responsible for data collection activities in the cheat sheet, so nothing gets missed. If the client is responsible for collecting much of the data in the evaluation plan, we include a visual breakdown of when data should be collected (shown at the bottom of Figure 2).
  • A progress table for evaluation deliverables. Despite the availability of project management software with fancy Gantt charts, sometimes we like to go back to basics. We reference a simple table, like the one in Figure 3, during our evaluation team meetings to provide an overview of the evaluation’s status and avoid getting bogged down in the details.

Importantly, include the client and evaluator contact information in the cheat sheet for quick reference (see Figure 1). We also find it useful to include a page footer with a “modified on” date that automatically updates when the document is saved. That way, if we need to update the plan, we can be sure we are working on the most recent version.

 

Figure 1. Cheat Sheet Example Page 1. (Click to enlarge.)
Figure 2. Cheat Sheet Example Page 2. (Click to enlarge)
Figure 3. Cheat Sheet Example Page 2 (Click to enlarge.)

 

About the Authors

Lyssa Wilson Becho

Lyssa Wilson Becho box with arrow

Principal Research Associate, The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University

Lyssa is the Director of EvaluATE, she leads the training elements of EvaluATE, including webinars, workshops, resources, and evaluation coaching. She also works with Valerie on strategy and reporting for the ATE annual survey. Lyssa is a principal research associate at The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University and co-principal investigator for EvaluATE. She holds a Ph.D. in evaluation and has 7 years of experience conducting evaluations for a variety of local, national, and international programs.

Kelly Robertson

Kelly Robertson box with arrow

Principal Research Associate, The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University

Kelly has a Ph.D. in evaluation and more than eight years of experience in the field of evaluation. She works as a Senior Research Associate at The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. Dr. Robertson has worked on evaluations at the local, regional, national, and international levels, spanning a wide variety of sectors (e.g., STEM education, adult education, career and technical education, and evaluation capacity development). Her research interests primarily focus on evaluation as it relates to equity, cultural competence, and making evaluation more user-friendly.

Creative Commons

Except where noted, all content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Related Blog Posts

Nation Science Foundation Logo EvaluATE is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number 1841783. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.