DoView Blog
Version 1.16 - easier presenting
We've now released DoView Version 1.16, you can download it now from the download page. It tidies up a number of things under the bonnet so to speak - or to mix metaphors, it fixes some issues in what software engineers call 'the plumbing'. You probably won't notice any of that even though we spent many hours on getting things right to make DoView nice and stable. However, the thing that users will notice looks subtle at first. It is the addition of two arrows in the top right-hand side of the toolbar. These let the user move up and down the pages (slices) in the Slice List even when the Slice List is closed so that you can see all of the slice when dataprojecting a model in a meeting. We had already implemented this in the web page models created by DoView (see an example here) and it was so successful in letting people move through slices (pages) when giving a presentation without having to open and close the Slice List, that there was the request made that the same feature be introduced into the PC version of DoView. So download the new version (remember to uninstall your existing version first) and try out the new feature when you are giving a presentation using DoView.
New DoView visual evaluation plan workbook
If you want to know everything you about creating a comprehensive visual evaluation plan like the example here, you need the new no cost DoView Visual Evaluation Plan Workbook. We've taken all the material you need to build a visual evaluation plan and put it in the one place. How to run the process, how to set up and use DoView at each stage and we've illustrated it with a worked example throughout. Check it out and you will soon be building very cool visual evaluation plans. What we're finding is that you can build these plans in something like 1/2 the time it takes to build a traditional narrative test-based evaluation plan. Normally when you've written a traditional narrative evaluation plan, you then put it away in a draw and use multiple Word files to control the implementation of your evaluation and you have to create Powerpoint slides to present your evaluation. Using a DoView visual evaluation plan you can use the same DoView file to build the evaluation plan, to present the plan to stakeholders and to control the implementation of the evaluation. If a new staff member comes along and wants to know where the evaluation is at - you just hand them over the up-to-date DoView file and they have everything they need. When you need to report back to your evaluation funders you just either email them a PDF of the evaluation plan (produced from within DoView) or more excitingly, you just point them to the web page where you have put up a web page model of the plan on your intranet or the internet (the web page models are also easily created from within DoView itself with a few mouse clicks). Check out the workbook now and get back to us via the comments page if you have any suggestions for improving it.
DoView pamphlet
We have produced a handy DoView pamphlet which you can print out and use to tell people about DoView. Also remember that we have an information sheet for Corporate IT Departments which you can used to explain to them the reasons why you what to use DoView rather than a standard drawing program.
DoView now being used in 11 countries!
DoView use is spreading now that the word is starting to get out about what it can do. It is now being used in 11 countries - Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Guyana, Israel, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.
Visual evaluation plan paper at EES
One of the papers related to DoView given at the European Evaluation Society Conference in Lisbon in October 2008 focused on creating a visual evaluation plan in DoView using the Easy Outcomes approach. An example of the web based model of such a plan is here. The full text of the paper is available. Communicating a program evaluation plan to high-level stakeholders is difficult because of the complexity of such plans and the limited time stakeholders have to consider them. However it is important that, in spite of this, high-level stakeholders have the opportunity to consider what evaluation is possible and what evaluation they can afford to fund. A visual evaluation plan presented in a standardized format and visualized in DoView provides a new and highly effective way of assisting high-level stakeholders to make decisions about evaluation priorities. Recently a board member when exposed to the DoView visual outcomes model approach to evaluation planning asked 'Where has this been our lives?'. The Easy Outcomes approach provides a standardized format for such plans. In addition, such visual evaluation plans can be used not only to make planning decisions about an evaluation but also to control and monitor its implementation. Further, the outcomes models within such evaluation plans can be used for strategic planning, monitoring, economic evaluation, outcomes-focused contracting and other purposes as set out on the Easy Outcomes site. Blog Update: You can now get a comprehensive workbook for building a visual evaluation plan in DoView from the DoView resources page.
DoView exhibition table at the European Evaluation Society Conference in Lisbon
The DoView exhibition table at the recent European Evaluation Society Conference in Lisbon which took place in October, attracted a lot of attention from participants. There was interest from a range of sectors and in particular a lot of interest from the international development sector. The problem the international development sector faces is that it needs easy tools for planning the vast number of projects of all sizes which take place in developing countries. A traditional approach within the sector has been to use what are called Logframes. A Loggrame is a tabular approach to developing a program logic. It has served the development sector well in the past, but there is now a general recognition that it has significant limitations, particularly in comparison to visualization-based approaches such as DoView. While dataprojectors and computers were hard to access in the developing world, Logframe was all that could be used. However, now that the availability of computers and dataprojectors is increasing, people involved in planning and implementing development projects are now looking seriously at using a tool like DoView. The photo shows the DoView exhibition table at EES.
Workshops on DoView and Easy Outcomes
A series of workshops on drawing intervention logics in DoView and the Easy Outcomes system for building visual evaluation plans have been run in Wellington New Zealand during September 2008. This wave of workshops was set up as a result of the very strong demand from the public sector for his earlier workshop on drawing intervention logics. The workshops included a Level I workshop on drawing intervention logics (program logics) using DoView; a level II workshop on the same topic; an introductory workshop on using DoView; and a workshop on using the Easy Outcomes approach. If anyone wants suggestions on how to run and structure such workshops just contact us through the contact page.
DoView and the shower curtain! AES 2008
At the recent Australian Evaluation Society Conference in September in Perth, Dr Paul Duignan and Dr Jess Dart ran a symposium on recent work on developing outcomes models in the NRM sector in Australia. The symposium includes hands-on development of a natural resource management program logic by participants. In order to assist a group to visualize and create an outcomes model, what has become known as the 'shower curtain' technique is used. This is where the group works with a large sheet of plastic, sticking steps and outcomes onto the sheet while they work. In the symposium, a program logic model was build by the participants using this method while it was also constructed in realtime in DoView. This is the method which is being used in some cases in constructing program logics because it combines the group interactivity of the shower curtain method with also getting an electronic representation of the model in DoView format at the same time. The photo shows Dr Jess Dart working with the visual model while in the background the DoView model which was constructed at the same time as the participants worked can be seen on the dataprojector screen.
Version 1.14 update will create web page models
The latest in a line of no cost updates adding new features to DoView (Version 1.14) is undergoing final testing before release. This update will allow users to both insert hyperlinks onto a DoView page and to create web page models of their DoView models. Just clicking File>Create Web Page Model will create a fully navigable web page version of any DoView model The web page model will include some, but not all, of the functionality which is included within a model when editing it with DoView on a PC. This development means that once people have developed their outcomes models within DoView, they can then quickly share them with anyone they wish across an intranet or the internet. Corporate users are already chaffing at the bit to get at this update as they want to put their models up on their intranets. The web page models will contain a particularly innovative feature in that it will be possible for the user creating the web page model from within DoView to include in the model a copy of the original DoView file and a copy of an automatically generated PDF of the file. Both of these will be available for those viewing the web page model to immediately download and start editing the model with DoView on their own PCs if they have DoView installed. Many examples of web page versions of DoView models are available at www.OutcomesModels.org.
Meeting with Clear Horizon Australia
DoView met with Clear Horizon from Australia in July 2008 regarding their work in using DoView in the natural resource management sector in Australia. Clear Horizon is an important Australian player in the area of public sector monitoring, evaluation, reporting and program improvement. Clear Horizon has been training natural resource management practitioners across Australia in how to build program logics. They have been using DoView in this work and now it is being used by many of those involved in natural resource management in Australia. The Clear Horizon meeting focused on ways in which DoView and visual models in general can be used in evidence-based practice.
Seminar on linking evidence-bases with visual models
A seminar on the use of outcomes models (logic models) in the natural resource management/conservation area was held on 9 July 2008 in Wellington, New Zealand with Rob Richards from Clear Horizon Australia and Mat Silver, an Evidence Based Practice consultant also from Australia. In the seminar, Rob Richards shared his experiences in training natural resource management practitioners in Australian on how to build outcomes models (program logics). DoView is being used in the training. Mat Silver talked about his work in developing an evidence-based practice web resource for the Australian Government called the NRM Toolbar in a previous role he held with Land and Water Australia. The NRM Toolbar is a repository of evidence about what works in natural resource management. Dr Paul Duignan talked about the how the latest release of DoView (Version 1.14) will enable models created in DoView to be used as a 'visual front-end' for evidence-based practice to any web database such as the NRM Toolbar. The new version of DoView will allow hyperlinks to be put into outcomes models. In addition it will let the user quickly create a fully-navigable web page model of their outcomes model. The user can then just put the web page model up on an intranet or the internet so that anyone can use it. The seminar was attended by participants from natural resource management, research funding bodies, and those from other sectors such as the social policy sector interested in how the approach can be applied to any sector where the link is trying to be made between evidence and practice. A web mock-up of how the system will work is available. The photo shows Mat Silver (left) and Rob Richards (right) preparing for the workshop.