Evaluating outreach activities: overcoming challenges through a realist 'small steps' approach

Practitioners are being placed under increasing pressure to evaluate the success of their outreach activities, both by government and by their own universities. Based in a reductionist doctrine of 'evidence-based practice', there is a desire to demonstrate the effectiveness and value-for-m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perspectives (Association of University Administrators (U.K.)) 2017-07, Vol.21 (2-3), p.81-87
Main Authors: Harrison, Neil, Waller, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Barriers
Change Strategies
College Programs
Colleges & universities
Epistemology
evaluation
Evaluation Methods
Evaluation Problems
Evidence Based Practice
Foreign Countries
Higher education
Outreach
Outreach Programs
Program Evaluation
social realism
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Summary:Practitioners are being placed under increasing pressure to evaluate the success of their outreach activities, both by government and by their own universities. Based in a reductionist doctrine of 'evidence-based practice', there is a desire to demonstrate the effectiveness and value-for-money across activities that now account for around £175 million per year across England. This article examines some of the difficulties in evaluating the complex social world of outreach and suggests a 'small steps' approach to overcome some of these. This uses the idea of a transformative 'theory of change' as a framework for understanding the particular contribution made by discrete activities within a wider portfolio, providing a more reliable form of inference than attempts to 'prove' impact over longer timeframes.
ISSN:1360-3108
1460-7018
DOI:10.1080/13603108.2016.1256353