Welcome to Module 10 “Evaluation in youth work”. As you could already understand from the title of the Module for the nearest 8 topics we are going to focus on evaluation, its usage and meaning in youth work.

So, let’s begin and now, let’s just try to think what is evaluation in general.

From one hand, evaluation is something that is natural for human beings. We do it all the time during all our life. We collect information, we process it, we give it a meaning and a value and we act or react according to it. We do it every day when we cross the street, when we buy something, when we talk, when we work, when we move, when we cook and we do it naturally without reports and questionnaires

From the other hand, evaluation is a powerful tool for learning process, for planning and especially, for improving our abilities, our projects and our activities. It should also be understood as a fundamental tool in processes aimed at social change, because the main strength of evaluation is in preparing us to make things better than we have done previously.

As you have already could understand there is a lot of reasons for conducting an evaluation and we will see even more throughout this Module.

“Evaluation in youth work” Module is designed to help youth workers and people interested in youth work and non-formal education to increase their understanding of evaluation and assessment in youth work. The main focus is on the use of evaluation to promote effective learning and also to provide a valid indication of learning outcomes.

In the frames of Module 10 we will learn a lot. We will find out what is evaluation, why, how, when and for whom we should evaluate, what is it like to plan and prepare an evaluation, what is reflection and feedback for, which method of evaluation to choose, how actually to conduct evaluation, how to report and how we can learn from evaluation.  

So, as you can see, our journey through the Module is going to be intensive and full of knowledge and experience. 

Together with passing through the Module, we also encourage you to continue to participate in our discussion forums, to ask questions and share insights and ideas. Don’t forget that you are the part of an online community from all over the world and we think sharing the diversity of our collective experiences as youth workers will enrich the learning of us all.

Now let's begin Module 10 of International Youth Studies Distance Learning Course!!!