Evaluation for Arts, Culture, and Heritage: Principles and Practice
Understand the principles of and develop creative approaches to carrying evaluation in the arts, culture, and heritage sectors.
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Duration
2 weeksWeekly study
3 hours100% online
How it works
Evaluation for Arts, Culture, and Heritage: Principles and Practice
Learn with researchers and industry leaders in the cultural sector
The only way to understand and capture the impact of cultural activities, projects, and programmes is through evaluation. That makes evaluation skills vital for arts, culture, and heritage professionals.
On this two-week course from the Centre for Cultural Value at the University of Leeds, you’ll examine the vital role of evaluation in the culture sector. Building on insights from interviews with researchers and industry leaders, you’ll learn how to design, implement, and communicate an evaluation plan.
Understand the role of evaluation in the cultural sector
You’ll start the course by reviewing the definitions and principles of evaluation. You’ll ask why evaluation matters in the context of culture, and discuss your own experience and views on the issue.
You’ll also gain an introduction to some commonly used evaluation frameworks, considering how these might be applied in your own setting and work.
Learn how to put an evaluation plan into practice
Once you’ve understood the key principles and challenges of evaluating cultural activity, you’ll start learning how to put plans into practice. You’ll look at a range of examples and case studies showing evaluation in action in the cultural sector.
You’ll discover a variety of methods, models, frameworks and processes that work together to produce robust, beneficial, and credible evaluation.
By the end of the course, you’ll have developed your own detailed evaluation plan that you can take home and implement in your own project or organisation.
Syllabus
Week 1
Evaluation in the cultural sector
Defining evaluation and understanding the challenges
In this activity, you will explore the role, purpose and challenges of evaluation in the cultural sector.
Principles of evaluation
In this activity you will learn about the principles of good evaluation practice, how they can help you overcome common evaluation challenges and how they are applied in different contexts.
Evaluation frameworks
In this activity, you will explore ways that frameworks provide structure to evaluation, learn how to develop an evaluation framework and explore examples of common frameworks.
Summary
To close this week of the course, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the week and a chance to check your knowledge and look ahead at what is coming up next week.
Week 2
Putting evaluation into practice
Evaluation methods
In this activity, you will discover some of the most effective and innovative cultural evaluation methods, and explore what each one brings and how you might use them.
Creating your evaluation plan
Building on what you have learnt so far in this course, you will create a realistic and achievable evaluation plan.
Communicating and learning from your evaluation
In this activity you will learn to communicate findings, grasp evaluation's link to organizational learning, explore reflective practice, and integrate evaluation into practical and strategic change.
Summary
In this final activity, you will review what you have covered on the course
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
Available now
Learning on this course
If you'd like to take part while our educators are leading the course, they'll be joining the discussions, in the comments, between these dates:
- 18 Sep 2023 - 30 Nov 2023
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Summarise the role evaluation plays in the cultural sector.
- Investigate effective evaluation approaches in the cultural sector and relevant methods to deliver these.
- Reflect on challenges and practicalities of delivering evaluation.
- Develop a plan to communicate evaluation findings for different purposes and audiences.
- Identify ways evaluation can become a learning experience at organisational or programme level.
Who is the course for?
This course is designed for professionals, practitioners, and managers in the arts, culture, and heritage who use evaluation in their work for decision-making, strategy, fundraising, and stakeholder relationship management. This might include independent, freelance, or research agency evaluators, in-house organisation evaluators, project managers and general managers of cultural organisations, artists and practitioners.
This course will also be useful for consultants, freelance artists, funders, policymakers, and board members in arts, culture, and heritage settings, as well as students of arts and cultural management or cultural policy.
Who will you learn with?
Professor of Cultural Engagement in the School of Performance & Cultural Industries, University of Leeds (UK). Further information https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/performance/staff/503/professor-ben-walmsley
Who developed the course?
University of Leeds
As one of the UK’s largest research-based universities, the University of Leeds is a member of the prestigious Russell Group and a centre of excellence for teaching.
Centre for Cultural Value
We are a national research centre based at the University of Leeds. Our core partners are The Audience Agency, The University of Liverpool, The University of Sheffield and Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. We are funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council, Arts Council England and Paul Hamlyn Foundation over five years.
Ways to learn | Buy this course | Subscribe & save | Limited access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Choose the best way to learn for you! | $99/one-off payment | $244.99 for one year Automatically renews | Free |
| Fulfill your current learning need | Develop skills to further your career | Sample the course materials | |
| Access to this course | tick | tick | Access expires 10 Oct 2023 |
| Access to 1,000+ courses | cross | tick | cross |
| Learn at your own pace | tick | tick | cross |
| Discuss your learning in comments | tick | tick | tick |
| Certificate when you're eligible | Printed and digital | Digital only | cross |
Cancel for free anytime |
Ways to learn
Choose the best way to learn for you!
Subscribe & save
$244.99 for one year
Automatically renews
Develop skills to further your career
- Access to this course
- Access to 1,000+ courses
- Learn at your own pace
- Discuss your learning in comments
- Digital certificate when you're eligible
Cancel for free anytime
Buy this course
$99/one-off payment
Fulfill your current learning need
- Access to this course
- Learn at your own pace
- Discuss your learning in comments
- Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible
Limited access
Free
Sample the course materials
- Access expires 10 Oct 2023
Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades) Sale price available until 31 October 2023 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply. | |||
Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)
Sale price available until 31 October 2023 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.
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