I’ve been writing for almost a year, 50 some columns. This week, before the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to share evaluation resources I’ve found useful and for which I am thankful. Although there are probably others with which I am not familiar, these are ones for which I am thankful.
My colleagues at UWEX, University of Wisconsin Extension Service, Ellen Taylor-Powell, 
and at Penn State Extension Service,
Nancy Ellen Kiernan,
both have resources that are very useful, easily accessed, clearly written. Ellen’s can be found at the Quick Tips site and Nancy Ellen’s can be found at her Tipsheets index. Both Nancy Ellen and Ellen have other links that may be useful as well. Access their sites through the links above.
Last week, I mentioned the American Evaluation Association. One of the important structures in AEA is the Topical Interest Groups (or TIGs). Extension has a TIG called the Extension Education Evaluation which helps organize Extension professionals who are interested or involved in evaluation. There is a wealth of information on the AEA web site. about the evaluation
profession, access to the AEA elibrary, links to AEA on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You do NOT have to be a member, to subscribe to blog, AEA365, which as the name suggests, is posted daily by different evaluators. Susan Kistler, AEA’s executive director, posts every Saturday. The November 20 post talks about the elibrary–check it out.
Many states and regions have local AEA affiliates. For example, OPEN,
Oregon Program Evaluators Network, serves southern Washington and Oregon. It has an all volunteer staff who live mostly in Portland and Vancouver WA. The AEA site lists over 20 affiliates across the country, many with their own website. Those websites have information about connecting with local evaluators.
In addition to these valuable resources, National eXtension (say e-eXtension) has developed a community of practice devoted to evaluation and Mike Lambur, eXtension Evaluation and Research Leader, who can be reached at mike.lambur@extension.org. According to the web site, National eXtension “…is an interactive learning environment delivering the best, most researched knowledge from the smartest land-grant university minds across America. eXtension connects knowledge consumers with knowledge providers—experts like you who know their subject matter inside out.”
Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe.
