FAQ

Evaluation has become increasingly important in the German-speaking world in recent years. In addition to a regional spread, this is also associated in particular with an expansion of evaluation activities to new and sometimes very different fields of application, such as development policy, schools and universities, vocational and in-company training, structural policy, media, environment, health, research and technology, administration and social services.

This is accompanied by a differentiation of evaluation approaches and evaluation methods. Whereas just a few decades ago, evaluation was limited to the assessment of programmes and their impact, today it is also combined with approaches such as quality management or organizational development.

This development has led to a growing need for discussion about theories, models and methods among people who research and teach about evaluation, carry out evaluations and commission evaluations. The establishment of a German-speaking Evaluation Society (DeGEval) in 1997 acknowledges this development and provides a forum for continuous exchange between all those involved in evaluation or interested in evaluation issues.

Evaluation is the systematic examination of the benefit or value of an object. Such objects of evaluation can be, for example, programs, projects, products, measures, services, organizations, policies, technologies or research. The results, conclusions or recommendations obtained must be based on empirically obtained qualitative or quantitative data. (Standards for Evaluation, Cologne 2002, p. 13)

Evaluation is therefore fundamentally accessible to all subjects and areas. The subject-specific working groups reflect at least some of the areas in which evaluation is regularly applied. Further information can be found in the evaluation standards published by DeGEval.

Our office welcomes your questions. Due to the wide range of contexts in which evaluation is applied, we might forward your inquiry to the relevant working group. Please understand that we cannot recommend any companies/members for business partnerships. You can also consider the following options:

• Search for the relevant terms on our website or consult our FAQ.

• Submit an article for the next DeGEval...Mail (DeGEval's electronic newsletter for its members) to the editorial team. After editorial review, your article will currently reach around 720 DeGEval members. The editors reserve the right to reject your entry.

• The forum-evaluation discussion list is a great resource for the exchange of information and requests for advice. Forum-evaluation has been operated in cooperation with DeGEval since 1997.

'Forum-evaluation' is an open German-language electronic discussion list for people interested in evaluation. It works as follows: A subscriber sends a question or message by e-mail to the server located at the University of Cologne. The server automatically distributes this message to all registered subscribers. Subsequently, they can read and reply to the message.

Over 900 people interested in evaluation are currently subscribed. They regularly receive information on current events and publications and can join in on interesting discussions.

Forum-evaluation is hosted by Dr. Wolfgang Beywl, head of the further education program "Evaluation" at the University of Bern and founder of Univation, Cologne, in cooperation with DeGEval.

You can learn more about forum-evaluation and how to subscribe on the following website.

DeGEval...Mail is our newsletter for all DeGEval members. It is usually sent out at least once a month.

With DeGEval...Mail, you can directly inform our members about your projects with regard to evaluation. For example, we frequently publish entries from the following sections:

• news from DeGEval
• event announcements
• job vacancies
• invitations to tender
• publications
• and more

If you want to share news via DeGEval...Mail, our editorial team will be happy to receive your submissions (e-mail to info@degeval.org). We reserve the right to change / shorten or reject your entries.

For those who have not yet become a DeGEval member, our abbreviated newsletter might be of interest. The newsletter for non-members does not contain any information on job vacancies or invitations to tender.

You are welcome to register for the newsletter for non-members here.

As a member you benefit from the following services:

• You will receive the biannual 'Journal of Evaluation' (ZfEv) in print or digitally free of charge;
• you will receive our member newsletter DeGEval...Mail regularly (approx. 12 times a year), which informs you about current developments in the field of evaluation;
• you will receive access to the internal area of the DeGEval website, where a wide range of information on evaluation and an annotated directory of members is available;
• you can take part in DeGEval events at reduced rates, with a discount for up to five people for institutional members;
• institutional members are individually mentioned on our website and thus publicly recognized for their commitment to the standards for evaluation and quality assurance;
• in particular, membership offers the opportunity to actively shape the development of DeGEval and thus also the future of evaluation in the German-speaking world.

Papers from the annual conferences are sometimes published in the Journal of Evaluation and occasionally in other journals. Furthermore, some contributions are also made available online by the working groups or by DeGEval itself. If necessary, a full-text search on our website or approaching a working group can help you.

The schedule of the annual conferences (speakers, titles of presentations) is usually also available online after the event. There you will often also find links to the presentations. There is no regular systematic compilation of all presentations, as the different event formats of the workshops do not allow this.

The start of the registration period for the annual conference will be announced well in advance. We manage the registration with the professional software ConfTool. As soon as you can register for the conference, you will find a link to our conference page on our website (www.conftool.com/degeval20XX) as well as all important information about the schedule, accommodation, etc. As a DeGEval member, you can register for our annual conference at more favorable conditions.

If you want to be informed in good time, subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on LinkedIn or become a member.

At our annual conferences, you can present your company or organization as an important partner for the German-speaking evaluation community. Clients, contractors and internal evaluation service providers from large institutions come together here to learn about state-of-the-art methods, attend training courses or meet potential contractors and clients. Most recently, around 300 participants from all over Germany, Austria, neighbouring countries and international organizations attended our DeGEval annual conferences.

Your organization is very welcome as a sponsor.

Our office will be happy to inform you about the possibilities of sponsoring or otherwise supporting our activities.