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Table of Contents Chapter 37. Some Operations in Evaluating Community Intervent... > Section 5. Collecting and Analyzing Data
Collecting and Analyzing Data | | Contributed by Phil Rabinowitz and Stephen FawcettEdited by Christina Holt |
What do we mean by collecting data?
What do we mean by analyzing data?
Why should you collect and analyze data for your evaluation?
When and by whom should data be collected and analyzed?
How do you collect and analyze data? In previous sections of this chapter, we’ve discussed studying the issue, deciding on a research design, and creating an observational system for gathering information for your evaluation. Now it’s time to collect your data and analyze it – figuring out what it means – so that you can use it to draw some conclusions about your work. In this section, we’ll examine how to do just that.
What do we mean by collecting data?
Essentially, collecting data means putting your design for collecting information into operation. You’ve decided how you’re going to get information – whether by direct observation, interviews, surveys, experiments and testing, or other methods – and now you and/or other observers have to implement your plan. There’s a bit more to collecting data, however. If you are conducting observations, for example, you’ll have to define what you’re observing and arrange to make observations at the right times, so you actually observe what you need to. You’ll have to record the observations in appropriate ways and organize them so they’re optimally useful.