From Instruments to Analysis: EvalFest’s Outreach Training Offerings

Looking for a quick way to train field researchers? How about quick tips on data management or a reminder about what a p-value is? The new EvalFest website hosts brief training videos and related resources to support evaluators and practitioners. EvalFest is a community of practice, funded by the National Science Foundation, that was designed to explore what we could learn about science festivals by using shared measures. The videos on the website were created to fit the needs of our 25 science festival partners from across the United States. Even though they were created within the context of science festival evaluation, the videos and website have been framed generally to support anyone who is evaluating outreach events.

Here’s what you should know:

1. The resources are free!
2. The resources have been vetted by our partners, advisors, and/or other leaders in the STEM evaluation community.
3. You can download PDF and video content directly from the site.

Here’s what we have to offer:

• Instruments — The site includes 10 instruments, some of which include validation evidence. The instruments gather data from event attendees, potential attendees who may or may not have attended your outreach event, event exhibitors and partners, and scientists who conduct outreach. Two observation protocols are also available, including a mystery shopper protocol and a timing and tracking protocol.
• Data Collection Tools — EvalFest partners often need to train staff or field researchers to collect data during events, so this section includes eight videos that our partners have used to provide consistent training to their research teams. Field researchers typically watch the videos on their own and then attend a “just in time” hands-on training to learn the specifics about the event and to practice using the evaluation instruments before collecting data. Topics include approaching attendees to do surveys during an event, informed consent, and online survey platforms, such as QuickTapSurvey and SurveyMonkey.
• Data Management Videos — Five short videos are available to help clean and organize your data and to help begin to explore it in Excel. These videos include the kinds of data that are typically generated by outreach surveys, and they show step-by-step how to do things like filter your data, recode your data, and create pivot tables.
• Data Analysis Videos — Available in this section are 18 videos and 18 how-to guides that provide quick explanations of things like the p-value, exploratory data analysis, the chi-square test, independent-samples t-test, and analysis of variance. The conceptual videos describe how each statistical test works in nonstatistical terms. The how-to resources are then provided in both video and written format, and walk users through conducting each analysis in Excel, SPSS, and R.

Our website tagline is “A Celebration of Evaluation.” It is our hope that the resources on the site help support STEM practitioners and evaluators in conducting high-quality evaluation work for many years to come. We will continue to add resources throughout 2019. So please check out the website, let us know what you think, and feel free to suggest resources that you’d like us to create next!