Glossary of Terms

The following list aims to provide an overview of some of the terms and references used within this web site and the wider field of evaluation and measuring effectiveness. For further definitions or explanations, refer to the texts and materials in Resources.

 

Accreditation: a process whereby and organisation's work or services are guaranteed to meet a predefined standards set.

Activities: the specific pieces of work to be undertaken in the short term in order to achieve the objectives set for the overall programme of work

Aims: the broad, long term goals set for a piece of work. Aims relate to the agency's mandate, principles and values and are fundamental standards against which the success of the work can be measured.

Analysis: the process of interpreting data in order to obtain information on which to base verdicts

Baseline assessment: a collection of data about the characteristics of a population before a programme is set up. This data can then be used to compare with a study of the same characteristics carried out later in order to see what has changed and/or as part of a monitoring system.

Baseline question examples:
- What are current levels of understanding and support for development education?
- What are the opportunities for promoting development education, what are the potential problems that will act as obstacles against it?

Benchmarking: Enables comparisons to be made between similar processes or organisations, by identifying good practice

Effectiveness: whether an organisation achieves the goals which they set out for themselves, and the extent to which the outcomes achieved by an organisation support its policy framework and goals

Evaluation: determining whether an activity has been performed as planned, achieved its planned outcomes and resulted in the required impact.

Impact assessment: a record of the changes which result from the activities, and the effects that a programme has on the community/target group in general.

Indicator: an agreed tangible reference point against which a programme can be judged. Indicators tell us something about the performance or behaviour of an education system, and provide a reference point against which the education programme can be judged. Indicators can be used to enable the monitoring of progress in carry out activities and to monitor what impact the work is having in terms of achieving its objectives.

  • Performance or Process indicators are used to show whether the activities that were planned are actually being carried out and carried out effectively. They need to show what is being done, and how it is being done.

  • Impact indicators are used to assess what progress is being made towards reaching objectives, and what affect the work has had on the different groups of people affected by the work.

  • Baseline indicators help to identify the 'starting points' for change, for example they assess levels of understanding and support for DE within organisations and communities. They are an essential part of capacity-building programmes and they provide an important reference point in identifying realistic impact indicators.

  • Outcome indicators: used to demonstrate the actual (expected or unexpected) results of the activity.

  • Output indicators: used to show the performance or behaviour of an education programme.

Inputs: the organisation and provision of resources to implement activities

Learning outcomes: define what learners will understand and be able to do as a result of an input.

Monitoring: the systematic and continuous collecting and analysing of information about the progress of a piece of work over time.

Objectives: specific, time-bound and measurable goals for particular aspects of a piece of work that contribute to achieving the longer-term aims.

Outcomes: what happened as a result of the outputs.

Outputs: The immediate products of a programme of activities

Self-assessment: A comprehensive organisational review of activities and performance undertaken by staff or trustees.

Stakeholder: A person or organisation that has legitimate interest in the activities of an organisation or body. For example: funders, customers, users, employees, etc.

Qualitative methods: are designed to help build up an in-depth picture among a relatively small sample of how the population functions, what the key relationships are, and how different aspects of life are linked together. They also reveal how people understand their own situation and problems, and what their priorities are. The questions posed are 'how?' and 'why?'.

Quantitative methods: are used to collect data which can be analysed in a numerical form. They pose the questions: 'Who?', 'what?', 'when?', 'where?', 'how much?', 'how many?', 'how often?'.

 

 

References adapted from:

Gosling, L and Edwards, M (1995) Toolkits - a Practical Guide to Assessment, Monitoring and Review Save the Children Development Manual 5

Quality Standards Task Group, (1999) Approaching Quality - a guide to the choices you could make NCVO

Woolf, F (1999) Partnerships for learning - a guide to evaluating arts education projects Regional Arts Board and the Arts Council of England