Task 7 - Report
Good evaluation reports convey evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations in ways that are useful and inform the audience about the changes required.
Evaluation report writers should consider audience information needs and timelines, and follow a standard evaluation report structure.
Established information and decisions
When considering audience information needs and timelines, evaluation report writers should return to decisions made at the outset of the evaluation and captured in the Terms of Reference. You should already have clarity around who requested and who will use the evaluation, and what needs to be learned from this evaluation to improve the initiative. This information is important for the reporting phase. In effect, the report responds to these initial decisions.
Consider you audience
Evaluation reports can have three types of audiences:
- Your primary audience are the people who requested the evaluation and are the major decision makers of the initiative, with responsibility for leading the initiative's design and implementation.
- The secondary audience are the people involved in the program in some way, although not responsible for leading the initiative's design and implementation.
- Your tertiary audience are the people positioned outside of the agency. They may need more background information and descriptive information about the initiative and its evaluation approach to be able to consider the initiative’s relevance for improving similar initiatives in their own context.
Report structure
Your learning evaluation reports should follow a standard reporting structure, such as:
- Title page
- Acknowledgements
- Table of contents
- List of tables and figures
- List of acronyms or a glossary of terms
- Executive summary
- Introduction
- Initiative description including the logic model
- Evaluation approach
- Data collection methods
- Results (i.e. findings and conclusions) organised by your key evaluation questions
- Recommendations
- References and appendices
Adhering to this standard reporting structure assists the audience to navigate the detail of your learning evaluation report.
Fact sheet 14 in the handbook provides tips to expedite the reporting process and a detailed checklist for evaluation report content.
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