Evaluation Soup
As organizational leaders, we know you have a lot more on your mind than evaluation. That’s why we love finding ways to make evaluation easier to understand. One way we do this is by talking about SOUP. Why?
Because the questions we ask when making our guests SOUP can teach us about the 3 types of evaluation.
Imagine for a moment that you are hosting a pandemic-free dinner party in a few days and soup is on the menu.
Before choosing a recipe…
You may start to ask yourself some questions. For instance, thinking about your other items on the menu, do you need to make the soup? If so, you may start reviewing your recipes, wondering which of your soups has received the best reviews (data) in the past? Which of your guests have allergies and/or flavor preferences? What is realistic in terms of your budget, available ingredients, and time to cook? Finally, what recipe (plan/theory) will be the best approach to follow for your circumstances? These questions will hopefully lead you to choose an ideal soup recipe for the event!
These recipe planning questions are aligned with formative evaluation which gives you the information to determine your needs and establish a plan.
While making the soup…
Another set of questions may begin stewing (pun intended)! As you’re gathering the food on your countertop, you may ask yourself, how is the quality of your ingredients? As you’re prepping the vegetables, you may start to wonder how could you slice them more efficiently in the future? As you’re cooking and taste testing the soup, you ask, how satisfied are you with the taste (do you need to add salt)? And how many cups is it producing for your guests? Before you know it, you’re now ready to serve that soup.
These soup-making questions are aligned with process evaluation which helps you measure quality, efficiency, and satisfaction.
After the soup course ends…
You clear the bowls and more questions may arise. You begin asking yourself, how many cups of soup were actually consumed? After eating the soup, what effects (changes) did the soup have on your guests? What did they learn about soup from their dining experience? How did the soup change their physical and/or emotional state? Weeks later, how, if at all, has their future soup behavior changed? In other words, are they eating more of this soup than they did before?