Event Details

The Lancaster Evaluation Group (LEG) is hosting a series of seminars and networking sessions which will explore a range of perspectives and insights on evaluative practice in HE and beyond. This is the second in the series.

In this session we will hear from two speakers who focus on the importance of adopting a participatory and co-productive approach to evaluation, both in the sharing of knowledge and expertise across sector and disciplinary lines, and in the design and implementation of participatory evaluative methods.

Following the speakers session there will be free lunch provided and an opportunity to network and connect in our Evaluation Café.

Session agenda:

10:30am-11:00am: Coffee and registration

11:00am-12:00pm: Seminar with the two seminar speakers presenting each for 20min followed by 20min discussion

12:00pm-12:30pm: Lunch

12:30pm-2:30pm: Evaluation Café (networking session)

Speaker 1: Gemma Moore, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Evaluation, University College London (UCL)

Paper title: Coproducing evaluations: Evaluation that Engages.

Summary: Voluntary and community organisations in the UK want, and are under pressure to, improve their capacity to evaluate their work, whilst universities have corresponding research skills and expertise. Within this session, we share a case study of how a university has respond to this need: the Evaluation Exchange. The Evaluation Exchange is a partnership between UCL and a community-infrastructure organisation Compost London . It is a structured 6-month programme that matches interdisciplinary teams of researchers with organisations to improve their capacity to evaluate their work. Rather than seeking to develop or promote one specific evaluation method we bring together different stakeholders with a range of skills, knowledge, and expertise to co-produce a bespoke solution that best fits the circumstances. Within this session we provide an introduction to the principles underlying the Evaluation Exchange, define what we mean by ‘co-productive evaluation’ , and outline some tensions of putting the principles to practice. We share the learning from delivering the programme, reflecting on the building capacity and capabilities in evaluation practice, supporting a shift in traditional evaluation practice.

Speaker 2: Rick Davies, Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant

Paper title: "The Most Significant Change" (MSC) technique: Its origins, how it works, and how it has been used 1994-2024

Summary: This presentation will describe the context in which MSC was developed and used, initially in a PhD thesis focused on field work conducted in 1994 Bangladesh. It will then explain the 10 steps in the design and use of a MSC process, as described in detail in the 2005 MSC Guide, describe some of the ranges of use of MSC since then, as accessible in the Zotero Online MSC Bibliography and present Rick's own assessment of the uses of the method, in light of its original design intentions.