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. With the founding of the German-speaking Evaluation Society in 1997, this development was taken into account and a framework was created for a 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 of great importance. Further information can be found in the standards for evaluation published by DeGEval.

The office is available to answer your questions. In view of the wide range of fields of application for evaluation, we will forward your inquiry to the relevant working group if necessary. Please understand that we cannot give you any recommendations of companies/members for the awarding of contracts. We also recommend the following options:

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

• You send 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 pass on your contribution.

• For the exchange of information and the search for advice, we recommend the forum-evaluation discussion list, which has existed since 1997 and is operated in cooperation with DeGEval.

The 'forum-evaluation' has been the open German-language electronic discussion list for evaluation since 1997. It works as follows: A person registered on the list sends a question or message by e-mail to the server located at the University of Cologne. The server automatically distributes it to all those registered. They read the message and can reply to it.

Over 900 people interested in evaluation are currently registered. Topics from all fields of evaluation are discussed, event information is distributed and recent publications on evaluation are presented.

Forum-evaluation is offered 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 find out more about the forum-evaluation and how to register on the following website.

DeGEval...Mail is our newsletter for all members of the Evaluation Society. It is usually sent to all members of DeGEval at least once a month.

The DeGEval...Mail offers you the opportunity to inform our members directly about your projects in connection with evaluation. For example, contributions on the following topics are regularly included:

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

If you are interested in publishing an article in the DeGEval...Mail, our editorial team will be happy to receive your texts (e-mail to info@degeval.org). We reserve the right to change / shorten or reject contributions.

Those interested in evaluation who have not yet become a member of DeGEval can subscribe to our monthly newsletter at a reduced rate. The newsletter for non-members does not contain any information on job vacancies or calls for applications.

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 web server, 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 mentioned by name on our website and can thus demonstrate to the outside world through their membership that they are committed 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 directly by DeGEval. If necessary, a full-text search on our website or contacting a working group directly can help you.

The programs of the annual conferences (speakers, titles of presentations) are usually also available online after the conferences. 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 opening of the registration for the annual conference will be announced well in advance. We manage the registration with the professional software ConfTool. As soon as registration for the conference is open, you will find a link to our conference page on our website (www.conftool.com/degeval20XX) as well as all important information about the program, 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.

Our annual conferences offer your company or organization a unique opportunity in the German-speaking world to raise your profile in the evaluation community. Clients, contractors and internal evaluation service providers from large institutions come together here to find out about the current status of methods, training courses or potential contractors and clients. Most recently, around 300 participants from all over Germany, Austria, neighbouring countries and international organizations came together.

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.