Power Up Your Facilitation: In-Person and Virtual Tools for Group Learning

You have your evaluation all planned out – the methods, the timeline, the literature review. But have you considered how you are going to meaningfully engage participants in your work? In this session, we will demonstrate our favorite in-person and virtual facilitation tools for group learning. With activities inspired by the internet and video games, you will learn how to power up participant ideas from multiple perspectives, upvote for shared decision-making, and facilitate a successful Zoom meeting. These activities are not only fun, but help create a more inclusive and beneficial evaluation, promoting the AEA guiding principles of equity and respect for participants.

Meghan Hunt, MPP, Research Consultant at Engage R+D, enjoys collaborating with change makers, community leaders, and visionaries to advance their work.  She uses her background in research, facilitation, and communications to form authentic relationships with clients and their community partners. When Meghan is not plugging away at a dataset or engaging with community members, she delights in finding new and creative ways to share ideas. She builds data visualizations, engaging presentations, and meeting tools to connect with and inspire audiences. 

Cristina Whyte, MA, Research Consultant at Engage R+D, helps foundations and other social sector organizations assess their progress, improve their internal processes, and optimize their capacity for organizational learning through data. She has extensive knowledge of culturally-responsive evaluation approaches, positive organizational psychology, and innovations in evaluation methodology. She presents regularly at evaluation conferences, domestic and abroad, and has published in peer-reviewed evaluation journals, such as the American Journal of Evaluation and Evaluation and Program Planning.