Robert Shepherd | Answering key questions about DPPE

In your view, why are trained program evaluators and evaluation managers – like those the DPPE produces – essential for meeting public expectations today? 

Robert: The DPPE is aimed at providing advanced training for mid-career professionals in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. The program uses the latest in theory and practice to inform best practices in the field; keeping up with how governments and the nonprofit sector continue to adapt to new public policy demands, policy decisions and changing ideas on the value of evidence. DPPE graduates are best equipped to manage these shifts, because they have been trained to work in dynamic conditions throughout their program of study. They are required to work with real-world projects and engage practitioners on a regular basis in their studies. Thinking like an evaluator is central to the DPPE’s success, as is being able to apply what students have learned to real-world situations.

How does the DPPE curriculum specifically ensure students develop this critical balance of technical expertise and collaboration skills?

Robert: The centerpiece of the DPPE’s training is the requirement to work on an actual evaluation project from beginning to end. Students work in small groups with a real client, who has asked for an evaluation of a real program or service in their organization. In this respect, not only do students have to understand the technical competencies of engaging with an evaluation project, but they must also understand project management and how to engage with clients. These competencies are critically important, especially since in many organizations, the evaluator must work with many different kinds of evaluation projects as well as different sorts of program leadership.

Evaluators work across many settings, including governments, non-profits, consulting firms, businesses, and international development agencies. What are the most exciting career pathways DPPE graduates are currently pursuing in this diverse field?

Robert: Graduates of the DPPE have found careers across several governmental, developmental, nonprofit and for-profit organizations both domestically and internationally. We have graduates working in international development organizations around the world, consulting practices, nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes, and governmental organizations at all levels. The attraction of evaluation is that evaluators are privileged to see many types of evaluation projects and engage with organizational actors that span sectors, disciplines and practice. Evaluators are increasing demand for their critical thinking skills and the ability to wrestle with complex policy and implementation ideas and challenges. Evidence comes in many shapes and forms, and DPPE graduates are able to produce various kinds of evidence using multiple tools and approaches.

The Diploma in Public Policy and Program Evaluation is delivered exclusively online. How does this online format benefit working professionals or students who cannot relocate to the National Capital Region, and how does the program maintain a rigorous, engaged learning experience in a virtual setting?

Robert: The DPPE moved its curriculum online in the Fall 2016. It did so because the field of evaluation had expanded well beyond its former target market of the federal government. Students were looking for more than just federal government training, and sought to understand evaluation practice in many sectors while maintaining its unique public sector perspective. In this regard, interest in the DPPE has come from multiple sources and the program had to adapt accordingly. The online format affords students to engage in different types of projects and multiple learning modes. Returning to an exclusively in-person format simply does not make sense in a field that draws on the strengths of evaluation teams working together from different parts of the country or the world. This format also opens up the options of engaging in evaluation professionals from around the world.

As an SPPA Professor, you recently co-authored the report “Smarter Government for Turbulent Times,” which calls for strategic spending reviews by the Federal Government. How do the critical issues and methods discussed in that report align with or inform the practical skills and evaluation frameworks taught within the DPPE program?

Robert: This report prepared for the CD Howe Institute is intended to provide advice to governments on the options available to carry out expenditure and strategic reviews during times of austerity. In many respects, the report delves into a particular form of evaluation: budgetary evaluation. It proposes that the government has to decide why it is carrying out the review, for what reasons, and for whom the evidence produced. This critical thinking is part and parcel of all types of evaluation that seeks either to improve programs, diagnose what may be going rightly or wrongly, or inform budgetary or other supporting decisions. Such critical thinking aligns with the DPPE, because from the beginning of a student’s learning journey, they are taught to ask such questions and to align their evaluations to specified goals and objectives. The materials brought to bear on student learning are also drawn from beyond the academic literature to include evaluation gray literature and practitioners writing in the area. This is very much an applied evaluation program that draws on the strengths of many people working in this dynamic area.

Learn more about the Diploma in Public Policy and Program Evaluation here: https://carleton.ca/sppa/dppe-program/