WHY AND HOW SHOULD WE EVALUATE THE FORUM?
Why Collect Evaluation Data?
As Extension educators, we dedicate our time and energies to making change. It is so important that our return on investment includes not only the short-term outcomes but long-term changes that can be seen in a community over time. Collecting and analyzing change data motivates us and helps us show relevance of Extension within the community and the community’s contributions to change in relation to community issues. Evaluation of the forum at different time frames (during and after the forum) helps to tell the story of how this process engaged the community to make change. Figure 8 suggests ideas for when and how to evaluate your forum to show and communicate processes and outcomes. Additionally, in Appendices 10-14 , there are samples of the evaluation questions we used for pre, during and post forum to help capture individual and collective outcomes.
Figure 8
From: Braun, B., Pippidis, M., Ketterman, J., Wolinski, L., & Volk, J. (2021, July 26). Engaging Strategically to Build Farm and Farm Family Resilience Engaging Community Members in Addressing Issues Together – An Introduction to the New How to Hold a Forum ePublication professional development . Extension Foundation NTAE. Engaging Strategically to Build Farm and Farm Family Resilience - YouTube can be found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoubNOy_X-I
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