How you evaluate your program depends on what you want to learn. Here are some sample questions – you are welcome to use any or none of these, and modify them as is appropriate for your audience. Need help crafting your questions? Feel free to reach out to an evaluation specialist.
Understand how your presentation improved the audience’s knowledge
Pre-test/post-test
(for a questionnaire issued both before and after the workshop)
- I understand what is meant by the “population aging” and can articulate the potential impacts for Wisconsin and my community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- I can describe the six qualities of an aging-friendly or livable community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- I can describe at least four characteristics of an aging-friendly community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- I have a good sense of the challenges I may face as I age, as well as the older adults and their families in my community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- I understand that as we age we gain momentum, and together we can ensure that everyone stays involved in our communities as we age.
Post-test only
- This workshop improved my understanding of population aging and the potential impacts for Wisconsin and my community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- This workshop improved my knowledge of the six qualities of an aging-friendly or livable community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- This workshop improved my understanding of the challenges I may face as I age, as well as older adults and their families in my community (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- I can articulate where my community is succeeding in aging-friendly characteristics, as well as our priorities for improvement (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- After this workshop, I understand that as we age we gain momentum, and together we can ensure that everyone stays involved in our communities as we age.
Looking for an off-the-shelf evaluation? Use this:
- Evaluation form created by Dr. Clifton Barber, professor emeritus
Understand the group’s intentions after the workshop
- I intend to participate in a subgroup or committee addressing a priority aging-friendly characteristic (response choices: strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- This group has a concrete plan to address priority characteristics going forward (response choices: strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- I can articulate the next steps and long-term goals in improving aging-friendly characteristics of my community (response choices: strongly agree to strongly disagree)
Understand the community-level changes that resulted from the workshop
This type of evaluation is a bit different – rather than participant evaluations, understanding the community-level change consists of finding and tracking indicators. This might include:
Short term:
- Continued discussion about these issues; whether the participants achieve the initial SMART goals they set for themselves.
- Whether aging-friendly language appears in the strategic plans or other guiding documents
- Newspaper articles, blog posts, etc, about the aging-friendliness of the community
Medium/long term
- Successful completion of projects on key priority characteristics by the group
- Repeating the survey to discover what has changed
- Concrete data like the rate of falls among older adults (available from County Health Rankings) or food insecurity among older adults
- Changes in other aging-friendly indicators, including consideration of the data suggestions listed with each Characteristic description
