Choosing the right survey questions is key to collecting meaningful data. This tip sheet offers a visual overview of common question types—like multiple choice, Likert scales, and open-ended responses—plus practical tips to improve clarity, reduce burden, and align with your evaluation plan. Whether you're building your first survey or refining an existing one, this resource makes better survey design easier.

Interim reports can offer valuable insight—but they can also use time and resources if not used strategically. This article explores the pros and cons of interim reports, helping you decide when they’re worth it and when an alternative might be more effective. Learn how to maintain transparency, manage risk, and keep your evaluation on track—plus, discover practical alternatives like status updates and implementation reports to better meet your clients’ needs.

Evaluators do more than just evaluations! From meeting facilitation to strategic planning, data visualization, and quality improvement, our skills support organizations in many ways. Learn more in this article.

Unlock the power of shared measurement—standardize your data, capture success stories, and drive collective progress. Discover how collaborative frameworks transform raw data into actionable insights for impactful evaluation.

Improve clarity and professionalism in your evaluation writing with Eval Academy’s free infographic on the Top 10 Grammar Mistakes to Avoid. Download it now for quick tips on avoiding common errors and making your writing more polished and credible!

This free template offers the top 10 tips for facilitating evaluation planning meetings, guiding you through every step from preparation to actionable follow-up. It provides practical advice to streamline your meetings, engage stakeholders effectively, and build confidence in creating clear, actionable evaluation plans.

Discover why good program design is the secret for impactful evaluations! This article reveals how clear objectives and strong leadership can elevate your evaluation game, ensuring you deliver actionable insights. While great design isn’t mandatory, it’s a game changer that sets the stage for success.

Explore how cognitive biases impact evaluation practice. Drawing insights from Hans Rosling's "Factfulness," this article examines 10 common mental shortcuts that can affect data analysis, reporting, and decision-making in evaluation. Learn practical strategies to overcome these biases and improve your evaluation methods.

Program Managers face a crucial decision in evaluating programs: internal or external evaluators? While internal evaluators offer deep organizational insight and integrated project design potential, external evaluators bring impartiality, specialized skills, and flexibility. This article explores the pros and cons of each approach, guiding you through factors like project sensitivity, budget considerations, and long-term impact. Discover the best evaluator for your organization's needs and goals.

Discover how World Cafés can enhance your data collection efforts. This article guides you through organizing a World Café, from selecting facilitators to crafting effective questions and managing conversations. Learn how to analyze the data collected and address potential challenges, making World Cafés a powerful tool for engaging participants and generating comprehensive insights in your evaluations.

Ever been frustrated by a poorly designed survey? From limited response options to confusing questions, we've all encountered surveys that leave us scratching our heads. But fear not! This article unravels the mysteries of survey design, offering invaluable insights into mitigating respondent frustrations and maximizing data quality.

Tired of reading irrelevant online content to find valuable resources on evaluation? This article explores strategies for navigating the vast sea of online information. Discover how to streamline your search and access the insights that drive professional growth and success in evaluation.

The terms “spread” and “scale” often go hand in hand, but they have distinct meanings. Learn the difference and when to use them in this article!

Surveys are one of the most commonly used data collection tools in an evaluator’s toolbox, and for good reason! There are so many different ways to ask questions in a survey, from multiple choice questions to visual analogue scales and image choice. This article highlights some options to help you think outside the (check)box for your next evaluation survey!

It’s time to embrace long reports! This article confesses my love for lengthy reports. Why? Because they're more than just data – they're knowledge preservation. Long reports have a place in our world, serving multiple roles, from building capacity to promoting transparency. Learn more about the value of extensive reports in this article.

Much of the work as an evaluator involves conducting evaluations for clients; this article describes our experience of working with an organization to help them become their own evaluation experts. Within this article, we cover the key evaluation concepts we shared with our client and highlight our own learnings from this process.

While traditional data collection methods like surveys, interviews, focus groups, and document reviews are well-known in evaluation, there are also innovative approaches like participatory and arts-based methods. One such method is Photovoice. While it might be daunting to embrace new techniques, it's important to recognize the value of methods like Photovoice in expanding our toolkit and enhancing evaluation practices.

It seems so simple – just ask a question! But many new evaluators or side-of-desk evaluators struggle with confidence in creating good evaluation questions. This article shares a few tips for writing evaluation questions as well as an example of how I go from a client meeting to drafting evaluation questions.

Data are only useful when used! They do no good buried in reports, sitting on shelves (or shared drives) hidden away. Data, particularly data from an evaluation, are begging to be discussed, contemplated, and put into action! This article discusses some ways to make sure your data are used.

Ethical practice is a cornerstone of our evaluation work at Three Hive Consulting. Not only does ethical practice ensure we are doing right by everyone involved, but conducting evaluations ethically adds to the professionalization of our work. This article defines ethical practice and provides some recommendations for how you can apply an ethical lens to your evaluation.