International Adult Learners Week
in Europe

Network of Learning festivals

Evaluation Methods - Introduction

This section is the third in a series of three technical support tools and pragmatic advice for current and future coordinators of learning festivals. (You will find more technical support tools under “good practices” and “cooperation models”.) As such, this document aims to provide instruments and examples for the evaluation of learning festivals, so that organizers of learning festivals can create a quality control mechanism for their own purposes and can build up evidence to make a case for the benefits of their learning festival vis-à-vis external partners and supporters.

As well as some preliminary remarks to be taken into consideration before beginning to evaluate a learning festival, you will find advice on how to carry out an evaluation. This includes a set of general recommendations relevant for evaluations, suggestions for useful criteria to be applied when evaluating, and some additional tips. Two additional tools complete this section: a model of how to construct your evaluation scheme, and finally and most concretely, an evaluation matrix that you can adapt to your own purposes. Under “samples of questionnaires” you will be able to look at examples of “real” questionnaires that have already been applied in the IntALWinE partner countries when evaluating their learning festival.

If you would like to add your own ideas, strategies or samples for evaluating a learning festival, please contact:

Bettina Bochynek
b.bochynek@unesco.org