180 - Cultivating the Next Generation of Evaluators through an Experiential Learning Program Model

Today's evaluators are witnessing a shifting landscape within the evaluation universe. This shift can largely be attributed to emerging technologies impacting data collection, data analysis, and ultimately data story-telling. Such innovation opens doors to other disciplines and professions that are increasingly leveraging innovative data methods and storytelling techniques to tackle some of the world's most complex challenges. To maintain the prominence and value of the evaluation field, it is critical that evaluators keep pace with innovation, and this is especially important when thinking about preparing the next generation of evaluators.  

Through the implementation of The Rucks Group’s Summer Experiential Learning (EL) Program, we have unlocked an abundance of evaluation potential by recruiting diverse student talent to meet the evolving demands of evaluation work. This poster presentation highlights the mosaic of educational backgrounds and professional experiences that are bringing innovative and valuable approaches to evaluation work by exploring the unique backgrounds of past EL participants. Students who want to learn more about how their backgrounds can lead to a career in evaluation are highly encouraged to visit our poster. 

Relevance Statement: There has been an increased demand from funders in recent years to leverage evaluation practices to understand the impact of an investment of resources and illustrate the stories of their projects. As a result of this demand, the evaluation field faces the emergence of competing fields that use data in innovative ways to answer the important questions that funded interventions seek to address. With this also comes innovative approaches to narrating the outcomes and future implications of funded initiatives. Advances in technology have led to an explosion of human-generated data commonly referred to as “big data" (Harris, 2022). As a result, the data science field has emerged to collect these data across disparate sources and apply statistical and computational frameworks to extract insights and drive decision-making. Professionals in the data science field are also bringing advanced instruments that allow for unique approaches to telling the stories of funded projects. Innovations within the data science field present an opportunity for evaluation professionals to expand past its traditional data collection, analysis, and interpretation methods. As the boundaries between program evaluation and data science blur, evaluators will need to evolve their practices to incorporate data innovations to maintain evaluation’s value to society. In response, professionals who are new to the evaluation field will need to learn these new data methods that will keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and data analytics. Through an experiential learning (EL) model, The Rucks Group aims to encourage a new story of program evaluation for the next generation that will not only maintain the prominence and value of the field but will also introduce new frontiers for expansion of evaluative work. As evaluation professionals, we have the power to inform and shape this new story. Presenters for this roundtable discussion include participants of The Rucks Group’s 2022 Summer Experiential Learning Program as well as members of the The Rucks Group team who facilitated evaluation learning throughout the program. Together, this group intends to encourage participants to exchange their learning and training experiences so that participants may walk away with actionable ideas for shaping a new story of evaluation through our next generation of evaluators. In doing so, the discussion aims to promote considerations surrounding systematic inquiry and competence. Addressing these guiding principles will ensure that the field effectively supports future evaluators in acquiring competencies that will advance formal evaluation practices.

References: Harris, Jordan. Data Science & Evaluation: Current Connections and Future Directions. (August 04, 2022)