2008 Conference Evaluation - Summary of Results
Introduction
The Southern Georgia Evaluation Association held its first annual conference in Tifton, GA, at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Health Sciences Center on January 24, 2008. The one-day event offered a keynote address, an afternoon plenary session and six 90-minute concurrent sessions led by regional and nationally-recognized experts in the field. The conference was designed for evaluation professionals and those interested in increasing their evaluation skills.
Conference Agenda
Two plenary sessions, including a keynote address, and six workshop sessions were offered. Hallie Preskill, PhD, delivered the keynote address: "Building Capacity for Evaluation Thinking and Practice." Dr. Preskill is the 2007 President of the American Evaluation Association and serves as Professor in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA. Dr. Preskill also conducted a two-part workshop: "Building Evaluation Capacity through Appreciative Inquiry."
Goldie MacDonald, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted a workshop entitled "Logic Models as a Platform for Program Evaluation Planning, Implementation, and Use of Findings." Dr. MacDonald is a Health Scientist in the Coordinating Office for Global Health at the CDC.
Iris Smith, PhD., and Sally Honeycutt, MPH, CHESS, conducted the "Data Collection Strategies" workshop. Dr. Smith is an Associate Professor and Director of the Career Master of Public Health Program at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and Co-Lead for Evaluation for the Emory Prevention Research Center (EPRC). Ms. Honeycutt is an Evaluation Specialist for the EPRC.
A workshop entitled "Assessment & Planning Resources" was co-facilitated by Colin Smith, MS, Data & Policy Analyst for the Georgia Division of Public Health, Office of Health Information & Policy, and Amy Willis, EdD, Special Assistant to the CIO at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC).
Independent consultant, Jim Rugh, MS, MPS, presented at the closing plenary session: "Real World Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time , Data and Political Constraints." Mr. Rugh is an independent consultant who has been professionally involved for 43 years in rural community development in Africa, Asia, Appalachia and other parts of the world.
Participant Demographics
Sixty-five (65) participants attended the conference, representing 46 organizations. Participants worked in 24 Georgia counties, with the majority (69%) representing Southwest Georgia counties. Of those living in Southwest Georgia, three counties were represented by the largest number of participants: Dougherty County (23%); Tift County (15%); and Lowndes County (14%).
Evaluation Survey
Forty-six (46) participants completed evaluation surveys, for a 71% response rate. The evaluation survey was designed to capture specific information on the degree to which conference objectives were met, session format and methods, and logistics. Participants were asked to evaluate each breakout and plenary session in terms of faculty effectiveness, teaching methods, setting, and workshop content. Respondents were encouraged to provide narrative statements about each session and to suggest topics for future conferences. This report provides a summary of participant survey results as they relate to overall satisfaction with the conference. Evaluation results of each workshop and presentation is available upon request.
A. Types of Organizations Represented
The largest percentage of survey respondents (31.1%) worked at community or social service organizations, followed by educational institutions (24.4%) and healthcare organizations (22.2%). The remainder of respondents (22.8%) worked either as consultants or in other types of employment.
B. Audience Skill Level
Participants were asked to rank their level of evaluation skill prior to the event. The majority of respondents assessed their skill as “Intermediate,” (48.9%), while 31.1% considered themselves novices. Seven respondents (15.6%) had advanced skills, and only 4.4% considered themselves experts.
C. Overall Conference Satisfaction
When asked to comment on what aspect of the conference was most useful, most often mentioned (39.4% of respondents) was the session on logic models, followed by 21.2% of participants who mentioned the session on data collection strategies. Six respondents also provided written comments regarding the most useful aspects of the conference (see below).
Regarding specific aspects of the conference, 100% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the conference was worth their time; 95.3% agreed or strongly agreed that the conference was held at a suitable location; and 92.7% agreed or strongly agreed that the quality of the workshops was excellent.
The vast majority (92.6%) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the time allotted was appropriate, although one respondent commented: “Need more time – 2 days.” Regarding the registration fee, 97.5% agreed or strongly agreed that amount was appropriate, and three individuals commented that the fee was a “Bargain,” “Great Value” and “Fees were affordable.” Ninety-five percent (95%) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they planned to attend another SGEA event in the future (see details below).
D. Suggestions for Future Conferences
Participants were asked to make recommendations on topics to be addressed at future conferences. Suggestions varied widely, but the most common suggestion focused on planning and designing evaluations, followed by data collection methods and instrument development.
2008 Sponsors: