RealWorld Evaluation


Book Description

This book addresses the challenges of conducting program evaluations in real-world contexts where evaluators and the agencies face budget and time constraints and where critical data is missing. The book is organized around a seven-step model developed by the authors, which has been tested and refined in workshops. Vignettes and case studies—representing evaluations from a variety of geographic regions and sectors—demonstrate adaptive possibilities for small projects with budgets of a few thousand dollars to large-scale, long-term evaluations. The text incorporates quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method designs and this Second Edition reflects important developments in the field over the last five years.




Real World Training Evaluation


Book Description

Is your program ready for the real world? Real world evaluation is a balance between art, science, accuracy, and cost. To set your program up for success, you need to start the measurement and evaluation journey with a clear destination in mind. In Real World Training Evaluation, Patricia and Jack Phillips hone in on ROI in learning and development and outline a clear pathway to seamless and credible evaluation. Learn to avoid real world barriers that commonly get in the way of talent development initiatives. Earn the respect of senior management by showing bottom-line impact, including the ROI. And start describing program successes in quantitative, qualitative, financial, and non-financial terms to win over crucial stakeholders. By demonstrating program results, you can help your organization link its human capital investment to operational excellence and sustainability. Real World Training Evaluation offers the directions and tools to get you there.




RealWorld Evaluation


Book Description

RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints addresses the challenges of conducting program evaluations in real-world contexts where evaluators and their clients face budget and time constraints. The book is organized around the authors’ seven-step model that has been tested in workshops and practice environments to help the evaluation implementers and managers make the best choices when faced with real world constraints. The Third Edition includes a new chapter on gender equality and women’s empowerment and discussion of digital technology and data science.




Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition


Book Description

The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.




RealWorld Evaluation


Book Description

RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints addresses the challenges of conducting program evaluations in real-world contexts where evaluators and their clients face budget and time constraints. The new Third Edition includes a new chapter on gender equality and women’s empowerment and discussion of digital technology and data science.




Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation


Book Description

A timely update to a timeless model. Don Kirkpatrick's groundbreaking Four Levels of Training Evaluation is the most widely used training evaluation model in the world. Ask any group of trainers whether they rely on the model's four levels Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results in their practice, and you'll get an enthusiastic affirmation. But how many variations of Kirkpatrick are in use today? And what number of misassumptions and faulty practices have crept in over 60 years? The reality is: Quite a few. James and Wendy Kirkpatrick have written Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation to set the record straight. Delve into James and Wendy's new findings that, together with Don Kirkpatrick's work, create the New World Kirkpatrick Model, a powerful training evaluation methodology that melds people with metrics. In Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation, discover a comprehensive blueprint for implementing the model in a way that truly maximizes your business's results. Using these innovative concepts, principles, techniques, and case studies, you can better train people, improve the way you work, and, ultimately, help your organization meet its most crucial goals.




Real-World Machine Learning


Book Description

Summary Real-World Machine Learning is a practical guide designed to teach working developers the art of ML project execution. Without overdosing you on academic theory and complex mathematics, it introduces the day-to-day practice of machine learning, preparing you to successfully build and deploy powerful ML systems. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Machine learning systems help you find valuable insights and patterns in data, which you'd never recognize with traditional methods. In the real world, ML techniques give you a way to identify trends, forecast behavior, and make fact-based recommendations. It's a hot and growing field, and up-to-speed ML developers are in demand. About the Book Real-World Machine Learning will teach you the concepts and techniques you need to be a successful machine learning practitioner without overdosing you on abstract theory and complex mathematics. By working through immediately relevant examples in Python, you'll build skills in data acquisition and modeling, classification, and regression. You'll also explore the most important tasks like model validation, optimization, scalability, and real-time streaming. When you're done, you'll be ready to successfully build, deploy, and maintain your own powerful ML systems. What's Inside Predicting future behavior Performance evaluation and optimization Analyzing sentiment and making recommendations About the Reader No prior machine learning experience assumed. Readers should know Python. About the Authors Henrik Brink, Joseph Richards and Mark Fetherolf are experienced data scientists engaged in the daily practice of machine learning. Table of Contents PART 1: THE MACHINE-LEARNING WORKFLOW What is machine learning? Real-world data Modeling and prediction Model evaluation and optimization Basic feature engineering PART 2: PRACTICAL APPLICATION Example: NYC taxi data Advanced feature engineering Advanced NLP example: movie review sentiment Scaling machine-learning workflows Example: digital display advertising




Complete Training Evaluation


Book Description

While substantial advances have been made in the L&D profession over the last decade, evaluation remains by far the weakest part of the L&D cycle. Most organisations wish to evaluate the impact of their investment in training but few do it well, and the lack of effective methods is one of the key barriers. Complete Training Evaluation addresses these issues by providing practitioner friendly but academically robust information and guidance on how to evaluate all forms of learning and development. It draws on the author's own multidisciplinary research along with his practical experience of working with private and public sector organisations carrying out evaluation. The book provides practitioners with accessible 'how-to' knowledge and tools to undertake evaluations of both formal and informal learning. Full of case studies and practical examples of application of methods and insights, Complete Training Evaluation equips practitioners with a range of approaches that can be used depending on the training programme, capacity and capability. An online supporting resource includes a bank of evaluation questions grouped around particular aspects of training.




Dealing With Complexity in Development Evaluation


Book Description

Recognizing that complexity calls for innovative, conceptual, and methodological solutions, Dealing with Complexity in Development Evaluation by Michael Bamberger, Jos Vaessen, and Estelle Raimondo offers practical guidance to policymakers, managers, and evaluation practitioners on how to design and implement complexity-responsive evaluations that can be undertaken in the real world of time, budget, data, and political constraints. Introductory chapters present comprehensive, non-technical overviews of the most common evaluation tools and methodologies, and additional content addresses more cutting-edge material. The book also includes six case study chapters to illustrate examples of various evaluation contexts from around the world.




Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods


Book Description

This new, third edition of Jack Phillips's classic Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods shows the reader not only how to design, implement, and assess the effectiveness of HRD programs, but how to ultimately measure their return on investment (ROI). Each chapter has been revised and updated to include additional research, expanded coverage, and new examples of Dr. Phillips's case studies. Seven entirely new chapters have also been added, focusing largely on ROI.