Evaluation Scales
What is it?
Evaluation Scales can be used at the end of a project to evaluate impact and the overall success of what you have done. A typical Evaluation Scale has five levels: strongly agree, agree, neither agree or disagree, disagree, strongly disagree.
Why and when should I use this?
The scale levels can be adapted to fit your purposes and align with what you set out the achieve in your brief. They can be used to measure impact internally, from your team's perspective, or externally from stakeholders who have been involved in the project in some way. Responses from these scales can be easily analysed and compared against one another.
How much time should I spend on this?
5 minutes. Even with a dozen questions for each scale, these are quick, easy to fill in, and accessible.
Who should I involve in this?
Any stakeholder you have worked with on your project. Adapt the scale levels and questions that go with them to the stakeholder and their involvement. Work with strategic stakeholders to evaluate do what degree you have made an impact.
How to use it...
- Decide what to evaluate: Work with your project team to understand what you want to evaluate and who you will be involved.
- Draft the questions: Come up with options for questions you want to ask the stakeholder group(s) who will use the scales.
- Draft the levels: Reflect on your brief and what you set out to achieve. Explore scale levels you can use to help measure the impact your project has had. A good Evaluation Scale has balance, meaning the distance between each level is the same for accurate comparison.
- Test and refine: Test the scales with team members who were not involved in developing them. Are they easy to understand? Can scales be compared against one another? Are they subject to distortion? Adapt the scales based on feedback and test again.
- Analyse and communicate results: After results have been submitted, collate them together and use these to communicate your findings meaningfully.