EvalByte: Evaluating an Innovative Model of Experiential Co-Learning

EvalByte
Evaluating an Innovative Model of
Experiential Co-Learning
Written by Nicole Homick and Leah Gavel (Mount Royal University Capstone Students)
What is the context of the project?
Communities have expressed a need for evaluation learning
opportunities that are applicable and socially relevant across
disciplines and sectors. Two courses have been developed and
offered in the School of Public Health at the University of
Alberta to meet this need: A 13-week graduate course offered in
the fall and UEval/QEval, a one-week intensive course offered in
the spring in collaboration with Queen’s University in Ontario.
The one-week course is delivered remotely and engages
learners across Canada and across disciplines.
The courses incorporate real-life case scenarios for students
and community partners to reflect on and co-create evaluation
plans, an approach called experiential learning. The use of reallife
scenarios gives students and community partners an
authentic view of the evaluation needs, knowledge, and skills
required to use evaluation in the community context. Upon
completing the course, community partners implement the cocreated
evaluation plan in their organizations.
This project examines these experiential learning courses. It
aims to 1) gain participants’ perspectives on the experience of
co-creating an evaluation plan and the effectiveness of
experiential learning in building evaluation knowledge, skills,
Key points
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
INCREASES EVALUATION
CAPACITY USING REAL-LIFE
CASE SCENARIOS AND
PROVIDING HANDS-ON
EXPERIENCE
THE PROJECT AIMS TO
IDENTIFY FACILITATORS
AND BARRIERS TO
IMPLEMENTING CO-CREATED
EVALUATION PLANS
STUDENTS AND KEY
INFORMANTS WERE
SURVEYED AND INTERVIEWED
TO UNDERSTAND THEIR
EXPERIENCE AND IMPROVE
COURSE DESIGN
THE PROJECT WILL INFORM
APPROACHES TO RESPOND
TO COMMUNITY EVALUATION
NEEDS
June 2022

and attitudes, and 2) foster reflection of course
experience to make improvements, increase
accessibility, and identify ways to be responsive to
student and community needs and interests.
Who are the community
partners?
Community organizations send a key informant
(i.e., members from their organization) to work
with a group of students to create an evaluation
plan. Some of the participating community partners
include the Alberta Vulnerable Infant Response
Team, Spirit North, EndPoverty Edmonton, NSTEP,
the Alberta Mentoring Partnership, Skillcity
Institute, and the University of Alberta.
Where is the project at?
The project utilizes qualitative and quantitative
study methods to understand the experiences of
students and key informants who participated in
experiential learning through the co-creation
process.
A survey and an interview guide were developed
collaboratively between the ECN and various
undergraduate and graduate students. Key
informants completed the survey and participated
in one-on-one interviews. A modified version of the
survey was also sent out to this year’s UEval/QEval
students to gain insight on the student's
experience with the course.
This project is currently in the data analysis phase.
A report will be created on the project findings.
Why is the project
meaningful?
This project will share the practical experiences
of those who participated in the co-creation of
an evaluation plan through an experiential
learning course. It gives a platform for students’
and community partners’ voices to be heard.
Participants’ feedback will be used to inform the
design of future courses and make them more
responsive to the participant's experience.
Through this evaluation, evaluators aim to foster
sustainable evaluation capacity through a shared
learning space for undergraduate, graduate, and
community learners.
Experiential learning is an innovative approach
because it is not commonly used for evaluation
knowledge and skill-building. It is mutually
beneficial for students and community partners.
It gives students hands-on experience in creating
an evaluation plan and provides communitybased
organizations a ready-to-implement
evaluation plan – a starting point for supporting
a culture of evaluation.
Resources
UEval: Bringing Community-Based
Experiential Learning to the Evaluation
Classroom
Learn more about UEval and how to
participate
Queen's University: Experiential Learning Hub
Acknowledgment
We thank the Mount Royal University Bachelor of Child Studies students involved in this project for their contributions. We also
acknowledge the continuous support provided by Rebecca Gokiert (PhD), Cristian Neves, and Jenae Gauthier.
June 2022