Webinar | Developmental Evaluation for Adaptation and Innovation in Higher Education

Higher education is operating in conditions of uncertainty and rapid change: shifting policy and funding landscapes, changing student populations, and the rapid arrival of technologies that reshape teaching and assessment faster than most evaluation cycles can accommodate. In this environment, formative and summative evaluation models are often limiting. Predefined outcomes are set before anyone can reasonably know what success will look like, and final judgements land long after the conditions have changed.

Whether your primary focus is teaching, learning support, technology, or administration, this webinar introduces developmental evaluation (DE) as an approach suited to innovation and complexity. DE repositions evaluation as a process of real-time feedback. This feedback informs adaptation as a strategy or initiatives as unfolding, rather than as a set of formative and summative judgements.

We will examine why conventional approaches fall short in complex conditions; work through the core principles of developmental evaluation and what they look like in practice across curriculum change, learning technology projects, and institutional strategy; and consider practical ways to adapt existing methods so that they become more complexity-aware. Participants will leave with a clearer sense of how developmental evaluation can support innovation and adaptation at every level of the academic institution.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand why traditional formative and summative evaluation approaches may not be suited to current contexts.
• Identify the principles of developmental evaluation and how they can be applied in the context of higher education.
• Explore how to adapt evaluation approaches and methods to be more complexity-aware.