Data Collection Methods
Overview
This section includes a number of resources, tools and Tip Sheets on many forms of data collection used in evaluation: surveys, focus groups, group data, community mapping. There are also resources on some other methods, such as ethnography and story-gathering. Some of the resources also show how particular methods have been adapted for particular issues – for example, evaluation of advocacy. For more, see also the sections on Inclusive Evaluation and Evaluation Basics, and the Tip Sheets on How Can We Design Focus Groups to Give Us the Best Information Possible, and How Can We Design Survey Interviews and Questionnaires to Give Us the Best Information Possible. Both Tip Sheets provide information that takes into account race, racism and privilege in the processes and content of those forms of data collection.
Tipsheets
- How Can We Design Survey Interviews And Questionnaires To Give Us The Best Information Possible?
- How Can We Design Focus Groups To Give Us The Best Information Possible?
Tools
- What You Should Do If You Haven't Gotten a Respectable Response Rate
- Collecting Group Data: Nominal Group Technique
- Collecting Group Data: Delphi Technique
- Focus Group Interviews
- Collecting Group Data: Affinity Diagram
- Survey Procedures
- Methods for Collecting Information
- Record the Decisions You Make with Your Data
- Community Mapping
- A Handbook of Data Collection Tools: Companion to a " Guide for Measuring Advocacy and Policy"
- Moving Toward Equity Data Review Tool
Resources
- Sampling
- Collecting Evaluation Data: An Overview of Sources and Methods
- We Did it Ourselves: An Evaluation Guidebook (Chapter 10)
- Best Practices for Survey and Public Opinion Research
- Survey Design
- Basics of Conducting Focus Groups
- Getting Inside the Story: Ethnographic Approaches to Evaluation
- Measuring Impact Isn’t for Everyone
- Lean Data Approaches to Measure Social Impact
- 2 of 5: BY THE NUMBERS using disaggregated data to inform policies, practices and decision-making
- Why Am I Always Being Researched?