Evaluating Engagement
Why evaluate?
Evaluation is crucial for public and community engagement with research. Reasons to evaluate include:
- Listening to the groups you engage
- Adapting your approach as findings emerge
- Measuring your impact
- Telling the story of your engagement’s difference
- Sharing what works and what doesn’t
- Being accountable to engaged groups, funders, and others
Evaluation should be embedded in engagement and involve engaged groups responsibly. See tools and resources below.
The difference framework
Engagement can make a difference to the public and community, researchers and research.
The 'difference framework' is a tool to guide engagement planning, monitoring, evaluating and reporting. Engagement professionals and researchers co-developed the framework to better tell the story of the collective difference engagement makes at Oxford.
The framework suggests subject areas and groups affected by engagement, such as the public and communities, researchers or the research field.
Types of difference include changes in knowledge, skills or behaviour. Impact captured on the framework could be short- or long-term, small- or large-scale, and in one or more areas.
The difference framework provides a common language for engagement at Oxford. It visualises how individual projects contribute to a greater whole. For questions or feedback on using it in engagement practice, please get in touch.
How to evaluate?
There is a wide range of tools and resources (Oxford SSO required) to inspire and guide your evaluation for different public audiences.