By Dr Julia Hinsliff, Behavioural Economics team of the Australian Government (BETA)
Good evaluation is the cornerstone of evidence-based policymaking. A new eLearning package program is now available to show you how to incorporate evaluation into policy and program design. Developed by the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA, PM&C), Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), Services Australia and the Australian Centre for Evaluation (Treasury), the four eLearning courses are now available to help policy makers understand key evaluation concepts and help them apply them in their work.
The courses cover:
| Introduction to evaluation in the Commonwealth Government. Developed by the Australian Centre for Evaluation, this course will explain what evaluation is, introduces key terms and concepts, and sets out why evaluation is important for Commonwealth Government employees. |
| Program logic. Developed by DEWR, this course introduces policy officers to the discipline of program logic, explains why and how it is useful and how it can be used to support high quality monitoring and evaluation. |
| Benefits realisation management. Developed by Services Australia, course covers the basics of benefits management, how it applies to broader evaluation activities, and how it can be used in investment prioritisation and decision-making. |
| Randomisation. Developed by BETA, this course explains why randomisation is a useful, easy to apply process, and how it enables robust evaluation. |
Each course is designed to provide policymakers with the tools and knowledge to incorporate evaluation into their work. The 4 interactive courses are now available to all APS staff via APSLearn.