INTRAC Online Monitoring and Evaluation course

Do you need to build effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) into project and programme work for both accountability and learning? This course will strengthen your skills in supporting the monitoring and evaluation of projects and programmes from programme design through to evaluation and impact assessment.

Good M&E is essential for all civil society organisations – large or small, international, local or community based – to be able to learn from and improve the work that they do and to be more accountable to their donors and supporters and to the people and communities that they work with. Given the high demand in the sector, this course is designed to develop your understanding of the principles and practice of effective M&E, share examples of M&E approaches and tools appropriate to different types of interventions and contexts, and help you to tackle M&E challenges that you may be facing. This course ensures that those who are relatively new to M&E have a thorough understanding of M&E concepts and have built up both the core practical skills and the confidence needed to do M&E effectively.

1 Objectives of the course

By the end of the training you will be able to:
• Define the main terms and concepts associated with the processes of monitoring and evaluating projects and programmes.
• Articulate the main purposes and key characteristics of effective M&E, in different contexts
• Select and use a range of M&E tools with confidence
• Apply results of M&E processes for improving accountability and organisational learning and explore some of the challenges that can arise from these processes.
• Reflect on your own role in bringing about improved M&E in your projects, programmes and organisations.

2 Intended audience

This course is aimed at staff of NGOs and CSOs who are relatively new to M&E, whether you are directly responsible for implementing M&E or are managing others with the responsibility to improve M&E in your organisation. Consultants working within the sector who have little or no M&E experience often attend this course. This course is suitable for those based both in the UK and overseas and is designed to be able to fit around the demands of your day to day work. You will need to have good internet connectivity to get the maximum benefit from this course.

3 Core content areas

• Jargon busting: definitions used in M&E
• Purposes of doing M&E
• Core characteristics of effective M&E
• How M&E fits with project cycle management
• Hierarchy of objectives (including theory of change and log framing)
• Developing Indicators
• Selecting and using appropriate methods and tools for data collection
• Conducting and managing effective evaluations, including developing Terms of Reference
• Effective and purposeful reporting
• Closing the loop: ensuring M&E leads to organisational learning and improvement

4 Course format and costs

Our approach to online learning provides approximately 25 hours of training over 5 weeks. The training consists of a blend of ‘real time’ interactive live sessions led by our highly experienced trainers, individual and collaborative group activities, opportunities to interact with participants on the course through discussion forums on the INTRAC learning platform, as well as individual coaching to enable attendees to apply the learning to their work.
This course provides flexibility and enables you to take part in an INTRAC course with others without travelling. Live sessions are recorded and made available on our e-learning platform, so you can view them in your own time. You will be expected to spend around 5 hours a week on learning and training.
The cost of this course is £550.