‘Real-World’ Evaluation: Ten Key Principles for Evaluating Complex Health and Social Interventions 2 day course: Fridays, 8th AND 15th January 2016

Dr Steve Ariss and Dr Nasrin Nasr are running a two-day short course for the third year:

‘Real-World’ Evaluation: Ten Key Principles for Evaluating Complex Health and Social Interventions on Fridays, 8th AND 15th January 2016.

The course is primarily focused on evaluations in complex ‘real-world’ situations, in which the evaluator has limited control over the intervention or context, and traditional experimental methods are inappropriate. It aims to introduce ten key principles for evaluation of complex interventions and how to apply these in health and social care settings. The course will mix theory and practice, and give broad perspectives drawing on the participants’ own work and evaluation needs. Participants will be introduced to complex situations, complex interventions and innovative evaluation methodologies, including theory-driven approaches. Time between the workshops will provide an opportunity for structured, self-directed study to reflect on experiences and begin to design an evaluation proposal that is in line with the nature of their practice.

Who will benefit from the course?

Anyone with an interest in evaluation especially those who feel that there is a need to address issues of complexity which have been overlooked in traditional methods of evaluation:

·         Academics & Researchers

·         Health and social care practitioners and managers

·         Public health practitioners (NHS, Local Authority & not-for profit organisations)

·         Health and social care Commissioners

·         Post graduate students

·         Evaluators with experience of Traditional Experimental evaluation methodologies who want to develop an

·         understanding of new ways of evaluation

·         Implementers of technological innovations (including private sector)

Expected outcomes:

By the end of this programme participants will be able to:

·         Identify differences between simple, complicated and complex interventions;

·         Describe ten key principles for evaluating complex interventions;

·         Discuss the strength and limitations of various approaches for evaluating complex interventions

·         Develop theories to guide evaluation

·         Plan the application of methods for theory-driven evaluation

·         Appreciate the key issues for data analysis and presentation of findings

Further Information      

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the Short Course Unit scharr-scu@sheffield.ac.uk or by telephone + 44 (0)114 222 2968. 

Further details and online booking can be found here:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/shortcourseunit