In the ever-evolving landscape of policy and program evaluation, this workshop aims to equip intermediate-level professionals with a comprehensive understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the policy and practice guidelines around ethical and secure AI use,and its strategic integration into the evaluation process.

This workshop aims to bridge the knowledge gap for evaluators, ensuring they have the skills to navigate and leverage AI effectively. Focusing on research methods and project management, this workshop will equip professionals with tools to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of evaluations in an AI-driven era. It will also enable them to evaluate programs and policies that incorporate AI approaches as part of their design.

Workshop content

1. Foundational knowledge on AI models and approaches
   
2. Ethical considerations and policy frameworks in applying AI
   
3. AI tools available to evaluators and use cases
   
4. AI prompt engineering for evaluation contexts
   
5. Practical evaluation scenarios applying AI tools
   

The practical evaluation scenarios include a worked case study where participants will apply AI tools to develop and deliver evaluation outputs.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand core AI concepts, approaches and tools relevant to evaluation.
   
2. Navigate policy and practice guidelines around ethical and secure AI use.
   
3. Apply AI tools and prompt engineering techniques in evaluation contexts.
   
4. Strengthen research methods and project management practice in an AI-driven era.
   
5. Assess programs and policies that incorporate AI approaches as part of their design.

AES Competency Framework Alignment

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluators’ Professional Learning Competency Framework.

The identified domains are:

• Domain 1 – Evaluative attitude and professional practice;
  
• Domain 4 – Research methods and systematic inquiry;
  
• Domain 5 – Project management;
  
• Domain 7 – Evaluation Activities.

Who should attend?

Intermediate  – suitable for professionals seeking a comprehensive understanding of AI and its application in evaluation.

About the facilitator

Gerard Atkinson is an independent evaluation consultant who has worked with big data and AI approaches for over 20 years, originally as a physicist then as a strategy consultant and evaluator. He is also Managing Director of Iris Ethics, Australia’s first HREC dedicated to reviews of projects in the evaluation, market research, and social research sector. Prior to this he was a Director at ARTD Consultants where he chaired the Learning and Development committee. He has an MBA in Business Analytics focusing on the applications of machine learning to operational data. Gerard has previously presented at AES conferences on big data (2018), experimental tests of AI applications in evaluation (2023, 2024), and applied AI in evaluation (2024, 2025).

The facilitator has over 20 years of experience in working with big data, machine learning, and AI, as well as experience in facilitating workshops and adult learning for the AES and in leading the internal learning and development program at ARTD Consultants.

The world that shaped traditional program evaluation has shifted. Society’s biggest challenges – climate transition, persistent social inequity, growing polarisation, and rapid technological disruption – cut across multiple sectors, actors, and time horizons. Governments, philanthropies and communities recognise these require a collaborative, intersectional systemic response in place, and beyond. No single program, organisation or discipline can achieve lasting impact in isolation. Traditional program evaluation methods fall short here. Instead, evaluators must work with complexity, non-linearity, adaptive cycles, shifting power and long-term collective learning. Whether operating in more concentrated ways within a suburb or town, or beyond, systems initiatives focus on shifting the underlying conditions rather than programmatic fixes – demanding new ways of thinking and working.

This full day workshop helps equip evaluators with practical tools to work with systems-wide collaborative approaches, including place-based approaches.

The workshop introduces participants to core concepts in systems transformation and provides a practical suite of frameworks and tools for evaluating systems wide change. We begin by building a shared understanding of “systems”, “systems change” and “systems transformation” and how these efforts differ from programmatic interventions. Participants explore common evaluation challenges and work hands-on with practical frameworks and tools drawn from international practice.

Workshop content

1. Building a shared understanding of systems, systems change and systems transformation
   
2. Exploring evaluation challenges including emergence, non-linearity, spotting and tracking system shifts, and demonstrating impact
   
3. Working with frameworks and tools including the Four Keys, Multi-Level Perspective Framework, adaptive progress markers, the collective noticing method, and social learning approaches
   
4. Covering relevant evaluation approaches across a nine-year arc of systems transformation evaluation
   
5. Using case studies and guided activities to identify emergent and early signals of change, apply tools, and engage in cross-sector learning

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the work of systems transformation (including place-based approaches) and differentiate these from programmatic approaches.
   
2. Describe the unique evaluation challenges of evaluating systems transformation approaches.
   
3. Identify the key phases and dimensions of systems transformation.
   
4. Select relevant frameworks and participatory tools for evaluating systems-wide change across phases.
   
5. Apply strategies for collective noticing and sensemaking that bring in diverse perspectives.

AES Competency Framework Alignment

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluators’ Professional Learning Competency Framework.

The identified domains are:

• Domain 1 – Evaluative attitude and professional practice;
  
• Domain 4 – Research methods and systematic inquiry;
  
• Domain 5 – Project management;
  
• Domain 7 – Evaluation Activities.

Who should attend?

Foundational and Intermediate, but all are welcome. Of interest to evaluators, change-makers, partners and collaborators, community leaders, funders, researchers, and policymakers.

About the facilitator

Jess Dart is Founder, CEO and Chief Evaluator at Clear Horizon Consulting with over 25 years’ experience in evaluating and designing social change initiatives in Australia and overseas. She is passionate about developing real-world evaluation and strategy for social justice and sustainability. In particular, she works with systems change interventions, large-scale strategy and social innovation and specialises in collaborative evaluation and the design of initiatives with complex, intangible outcomes.

Emily Gates is a tenured associate professor at Boston College whose research explores how evaluation can support meaningful, values‑driven change in complex systems. Her work bridges theory and practice, spanning more than 30 publications and two coauthored books: Evaluative Inquiry for Systemic Change (2025, with Pablo Vidueira) and Evaluating and Valuing in Social Research (2021, with Thomas Schwandt). In 2023, she received the American Evaluation Association’s Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award, recognizing her research on systems thinking, values, and equity in evaluation practice. Since 2012, she has worked primarily in the public sector, focusing on mixed methods and democratic evaluations in STEM education and public health. She holds a PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and is a former evaluation fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She lives in Boston with her family and will spend a sabbatical year in Australia and New Zealand in 2026–2027.

There is increasing demand for high quality impact evaluation, but it is not always possible —or appropriate—to use experimental methods (such as randomized controlled trials involving control groups) or quasi-experimental designs (involving comparison groups). This workshop focuses on rigorous non-experimental approaches to impact evaluation, especially contribution analysis and process tracing.

For evaluators, the workshop will strengthen their ability to design and conduct high-quality non-experimental impact evaluations. For evaluation commissioners, it will strengthen their ability to frame appropriate terms of reference, select and manage appropriate evaluation teams and support use of findings.

Workshop content

1. Different ways terminology is used around causal inference and impact evaluation approaches
   
2. The range of tasks involved in an impact evaluation
   
3. Thinking about cause and effect
   
4. Better theories of change to strengthen impact evaluation
   
5. The logic of non-counterfactual causal inference
   
6. Different types of causal tests and evidentiary basis for impact evaluation
   
7. Key features of contribution analysis
   
8. Key features of process tracing
   
9. An overview of other non-experimental impact evaluationn
   
10. Implications for planning and managing evaluation
    
11. When non-experimental evaluation approaches are appropriate

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand why experimental approaches are not always feasible and how non-experimental methods can still provide strong evidence of impact.
   
2. Learn the key principles of contribution analysis and process tracing and how they help answer impact questions.
   
3. Apply these methods to practical exercises to assess whether and how a program has contributed to observed changes.
   
4. Identify how these approaches might be applied in their work.

AES Competency Framework Alignment

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluators’ Professional Learning Competency Framework.

The identified domains are:

• Domain 4 – Research methods and systematic inquiry.

Who should attend?

Advanced.  The full-day advanced workshop is intended for people with a good understanding of foundational evaluation concepts and data collection, analysis and reporting options.

About the facilitator

Patricia Rogers, former Professor of Public Sector Evaluation RMIT University, has over 30 years of experience working with government and non-government organisations in Australia and internationally as an evaluator, advisor and on capacity strengthening projects. She is the founder of BetterEvaluation, the global knowledge platform on evaluation methods and processes and has a deep commitment to supporting appropriate choices in evaluation design. She has presented keynote and plenary addresses at evaluation conferences in Australasia, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America and successful evaluation workshops in Australia and internationally including AES pre-conference workshops. She has written on appropriate methods for impact evaluation and ways of addressing complexity in evaluation. Her publications include the book (co-authored with Sue Funnell) Purposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models, guidance for the Department of Industry, Science and Resources on choosing appropriate designs and methods for impact evaluation. She is a Fellow of the AES, and recipient of the AES Outstanding Contribution to Evaluation Award and the American Evaluation Association’s Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award.

The purpose of the workshop is to provide a comfortable learning space for Indigenous researchers (prioritised) and their allies to meet each other and share their knowledge and practice. This includes sharing stories about evaluation projects and the approach used, as well as broader discussions such as the important role of cultural protocols to inform the design and delivery of culturally safe and effective evaluations.

The objectives are to provide a culturally safe and creative learning environment that is more aligned with Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. Senior Indigenous researchers will lead discussion on Indigenous evaluation approaches in a participatory way, modelling Indigenous leadership with the aim of growing the leadership of Indigenous evaluators and enabling younger people to learn from older people. The way we share will be as important as what we share.

Workshop content

1. Full group yarning circles interchanging with small breakout sessions
   
2. Sharing stories about valued evaluation projects and the approaches used
   
3. Discussing cultural protocols, team processes, techniques, practices, challenges and enablers of good practice
   
4. Co-creating a learnings output to be shared more broadly if agreed
   
5. Potentially moving beyond the conference room to include outdoor sessions if appropriate

The workshop participants will share and grow their knowledge about Indigenous-led evaluation and co-creation and co-implementation with Indigenous communities. This will help build individual understandings of what is good practice, and the challenges and enablers of good practice.

Learning Outcomes

1. Increase knowledge and understanding about good practice in and for Indigenous-led evaluation.
   
2. Strengthen understanding of co-creation and co-implementation of evaluation with Indigenous communities.
   
3. Build individual and collective understandings of good practice, challenges and enablers.

AES Competency Framework Alignment

This workshop aligns with competencies in the AES Evaluators’ Professional Learning Competency Framework.

The identified domains are:

• Domain 1 – Evaluative attitude and professional practice;
  
• Domain 3 – Culture, stakeholders and context

Who should attend?

Foundation / Intermediate  Indigenous researchers are prioritised, along with allies interested in culturally safe and effective Indigenous-led evaluation practice. Participants of all levels are encouraged to join as the workshop participants will be learning from each other and we will endeavor to make the language used very accessible.

About the facilitators

Alex Gyles is a Research Fellow working in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) at the Centre for Human Security and Social Change, La Trobe University. He works on the YWPP project which he finds an exciting learning experience in MEL where local cultural protocols are fundamental to effective MEL design and delivery. He has over ten years of experience supporting processes of social change particularly in community development, governance, and MEL with Aboriginal land councils in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. He has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Anthropology and Politics,and a Master of Public Policy and Management.

Glenda Napaljarri Wayne is a Warlpiri woman and a Senior Community researcher at the Centre for Human Security and Social Change at La Trobe University. She is an experienced researcher and evaluator working across multiple evaluation projects in the Tanami Desert, including the YWPP project and the Lajamanu Good Community Life for Yapa project. She plays an important role in training and mentoring new and younger researchers. She is particularly passionate about growing Aboriginal research teams through following local cultural protocols.

Shane D’Angelo is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Human Security and Social Change at La Trobe University. He is a Kokatha man who carries many years of experience working in Aboriginal Public Health research, with local Aboriginal organisations and government. He has a depth of both practical and academic experience in the space of research and evaluation.

The workshop design and delivery will be led by Senior Warlpiri Aboriginal researchers from La Trobe University with support from other La Trobe University researchers. These researchers aim to centre Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing in how it is delivered to provide a culturally safe space for Aboriginal evaluators. The team have applied adult learning techniques for over ten years, particularly in the space of Indigenous-led development and evaluation, and have facilitated multiple workshops at conferences, including the half day AES 2024 YWPP conference workshop that received excellent feedback from participants.

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HALF DAY AFTERNOON WORKSHOP  

Child Voice Methods in Evaluation: Applying the Voice of the Child Toolkit Voice

presented by Alice Ghazarian and Claire Jennings  |  FOUNDATION / INTERMEDIATE 

Workshop description