Theory Maker! July 27, 2020 r & software & theorymaker & evaluation & mande & Theorymaker “A theory of change for our project!” “Great, but so fiddly to actually draw.” Theory Maker is designed to meet this need. Theory Maker is a Inventory & analysis of small conservation grants, C&W Africa - Powell & Mesbach! Lots of charts! July 27, 2020 r & dataviz & conservation & IUCN & Africa & reproducibleResearch & evaluation Here it is at last This was an interesting job. We visited three countries, did a lot of interesting interviews, and a lot of data analysis. This Progress on the Causal Map app March 30, 2020 evaluation & theorymaker & causalmapping & causal-mapping I’ve been working more or less full-time on our app for causal mapping, now called simply “Causal Map” for over a year now. You can find out more on Articles and presentations related to Causal Maps and Theorymaker March 26, 2020 evaluation & theorymaker & visualisation Here are some things I’ve already written as steps on the road to understanding causal mapping. If you’ve read any of these, you might be interested A starter kit for reproducible research with R January 11, 2019 R & reproducibleResearch & evaluation This accompanies my draft short article for the UKES Bulletin: A reproducible workflow for evaluation reports. Here are just two files which A reproducible workflow for evaluation reports January 11, 2019 R & reproducibleResearch & research & evaluation This is a draft of a short article for the UKES Bulletin. Most evaluators have to produce at least a few tables and graphics in their evaluation Welcome to the Wiggle Room August 29, 2018 evaluation & theorymaker & visualisation Inspired by Judea Pearl’s new “The Book of Why”, and also by Nicky Case’s work on explorables, I’ve started work on a explorable web app. Pearl Realtime comments on a Theory of Change May 8, 2018 evaluation Wouldn’t it be great if, for an evaluation, you could map out the project’s theory of change and then pin the data (the answers to the evaluation A panel on visualising Theories of Change for EES 2018? January 11, 2018 evaluation & theorymaker & visualisation I am thinking of getting together a panel presentation on this topic for The European Evaluation Society conference in Greece 1-5 October 2018: Peer mentoring for evaluators January 7, 2018 evaluation Peer mentoring – It is good practice for professionals who often work alone to be able to call on a mentor. I am beginning a co-mentoring How do you explain reproducible research to clients? January 3, 2018 reproducibleResearch & research & evaluation Most of the statistics work I do now is reproducible research - this can offer a big advantage for clients but of course that doesn’t necessarily Links for my AEA eval2017 presentation, Washington DC October 18, 2017 evaluation & research & theorymaker AEA program listing. A short post here on this blog The book is not an easy read But there is an Epilogue right at the back of the book which Beaufort and Rubrics January 12, 2017 evaluation & research & outcome-mapping & social research A quick post about the Beaufort scale for wind speed, see below, as paradigm of a rubric. Rubrics are really important in evaluation. The Beaufort Judea Pearl June 1, 2016 evaluation & research & social research I only just came across the work of Judea Pearl (which shows how ignorant I am because he won the Turing Prize in 2011). I think his work is Everything should be evidence-based - if only the evidence would make up its mind already May 18, 2016 twitter & evaluation & Theories of Change & social research This question came up on an Evaluation mailing list and was forwarded to non other than Andrew Gelman, and for our purposes it can be boiled down Theory Maker and markdown February 8, 2016 r & software & evaluation & mande & markdown & Theorymaker & theorymaker Theory Maker is a free and simple web app for making diagrams of theories of change etc. I already wrote about it. Its special feature is that you Crowd sourced evaluation: did it work? January 11, 2016 mande & evaluation & crowd-sourced-evaluation This is a quick report of what happened when I tried to “crowd-source” a recent global evaluation I did for a UN agency. An ordinary evaluation Crowd-sourced evaluation - why? January 10, 2016 mande & evaluation & crowd-sourced-evaluation Very often, evaluation TORs are so comprehensive that it is not really possible in the time available to do proper independent data gathering for Crowd-sourced evaluation - the steps. January 10, 2016 mande & evaluation & crowd-sourced-evaluation At the very least, it has to be clear what is anonymous, what is not, what the data can be used for. If the client makes any part of the process Theory Maker - technical details November 12, 2015 r & software & theorymaker & evaluation & mande Theory Maker is a free and simple web app for making diagrams of theories of change, logframes, etc. Its special feature is that you can also create Theory Maker - technical details November 12, 2015 r & software & theorymaker & evaluation & mande Theory Maker is a free and simple web app for making diagrams of theories of change, logframes, etc. Its special feature is that you can also create Assumptions and Context in Logic Models November 1, 2014 research & evaluation & social research How to distinguish assumptions and context in logic models? Here is one attempt. It isn’t quite right yet … A potential assumption in a logic model Measuring resilience August 10, 2014 evaluation & development This article is work in progress! Feel free to add a comment. There should be a pdf at this link. After the terrible earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Does maintaining supply of water and sanitation in IDP sites after the relief phase encourage people to stay in the sites? October 2, 2013 development & evaluation & reproducibleResearch Does cutting them Does it make sense to try to measure progress on the highest levels of a logframe? June 22, 2013 development & evaluation & frameworks Another interesting discussion on the M&ENews mailing list - does it make sense to try to measure progress on the highest levels of a logframe? A Haiti: Request for Qualifications for research teams to conduct an impact evaluation of the Integrated Neighborhood Approach (INA) February 22, 2013 evaluation & Haiti & impact & social research Very proud and happy to see that this idea, which we developed while I was in Haiti with the IFRC, is nearing fruition: 3ie will be issuing a The five-year plan is dead, long live the five-year plan! January 14, 2013 evaluation Interesting discussion taking place on the XCEval mailing list. Deborah Rugg, UNEG Chair and OIOS IED Director, posted selective highlights of final IFRC Haiti Learning Conference and Evaluation Framework - main documents August 10, 2012 evaluation & development & disaster & IFRC Here they are: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ytsmeoxg7c6fnnl/AAAqwFMHiQBKsa7MXBUNSPwLa?dl=0 Using R for classification in small-N studies July 14, 2012 development & evaluation & reproducibleResearch Rick Davies just wrote an interesting post which combined thoughts on QCA (and multi-valued QCA or mvQCA) and classification trees with thoughts on Impact, Outcome and INUS causes July 12, 2012 research & evaluation Interesting discussion on the Outcome Mapping mailing list - here is something I just posted. This part of the discussion was about whether Outcome Progress Markers, Boundary Partners and Item-Response Theory June 8, 2012 research & evaluation There has recently been a discussion thread on the Outcome Mapping mailing list about progress markers and boundary partners. Briefly, a development Outcome Mapping book chapter just out March 6, 2012 development & evaluation & research & outcome-mapping & social research Powell, Steve, Joakim Molander, and Ivona Čelebičić. ‘Assessment of Outcome Mapping as a Tool for Evaluating and Monitoring Support to Civil Society Illogical frameworks, composite results, and logframe bloat. November 26, 2011 evaluation Logframe bloat causes headaches, tiredness and indigestion in M&E staff. This post is about one cause of it. Sometimes I have to help organisations Paradox of Evaluation Counterfactuals July 15, 2011 development & evaluation Why does the counterfactual evaluation principle seem to break down in the following case? Suppose eleven organisations each bring enough vaccines My first Reproducible Research Compendium December 14, 2010 evaluation & research & social research I have just completed my first Reproducible Research Compendium “Analysis of the combined survey datasets from the American Red Cross Tsunami Value and measurability in development October 19, 2010 development & evaluation & research & social research There is an interesting discussion on the xceval mailing list right now about value and measurability in development. Seems to me there are four Google docs a good way of reaching consensus? September 22, 2010 collaboration & evaluation & tech So we have now finished our google doc, four people over three days etc., and a couple more nights afterwards. Writing it on google docs certainly Three days, six people, three pages, one google doc September 21, 2010 collaboration & development & evaluation & tech & social research Just got back from Geneva where we - the four authors of the meta-evaluations of the ARC Tsunami Recovery Program - spent three days writing a