The Wits Programme Evaluation Group is a network of persons who have taught courses in programme evaluation at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, or who have studied programme evaluation at post-graduate level at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The group organises courses, conferences and training workshops in programme evaluation methodology. It also undertakes consulting work through Wits Enterprise.
The Wits Programme Evaluation Group is organising a virtual conference on methodology in programme evaluation during 2010. This focuses on the following general areas as relevant to the development of common approaches to programme evaluation internationally:
The conference is being held between April 7th and April 9th 2010, when upload of conference contributions takes place. More information on the conference process, the reviewing and appraisal process, and on how to make contributions can be found in the Call for Papers and the Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers on this website.
The virtual conference is being preceded by a pre-conference workshop on programme evaluation over a four month period between October 2009 and February 2010. The aim of the workshop is to work developmentally with promising students and young researchers to prepare suitable conference contributions. Participation in this is limited, and by invitation.
South Africa is a multicultural, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and diverse country socio-politically, socio-economically and educationally. The conference will focus on contributions in general areas relevant to the methodology of programme evaluation, but also aims to attract contributions focused on the following areas relevant to the development and evaluation of social and educational development programmes in the developed and developing world:
The conference is being hosted at the University of the Witwatersrand’s website in Johannesburg, and aims to attract a variety of contributions from South African and international contributors.
Professor Charles Potter of the Department of Psychology in the School of Human and Community Development is the Chairperson of the Programme Committee. His email is charles.potter@wits.ac.za. Professor Ray Basson of the School of Education is the Conference Chair. His email is raymond.basson@wits.ac.za.
The members of the programme committee and their functions relative to the conference are:
Honorary Chair: Professor Norman Duncan (Head: School of Human and Community Development)
Programme Committee Chair: Professor Charles Potter (Psychology)
Conference Chair: Professor Ray Basson (Education)
Pre-conference Workshop Chairs: Adilia Silva PhD (Psychology) and Stephen Porter (School of Public and Development Management)
Reviewing Committee Chair: Enid Schutte (Psychology)
Chairs of Poster Session: Enid Schutte and Athena Tudoric-Ghemo (Psychology)
Adviser Quantitative Methods: Professor Peter Fridjhon (Head: School of Statistics and Actuarial Sciences)
Adviser Qualitative Methods: Professor Ruksana Osman (Head: School of Education)
Technical Adviser: Brett Bowman PhD (Senior Researcher: School of Human and Community Development)
Organiser, Networking and Internet Groups: Jarrod Payne (Psychology)
Webmaster: Gregg Ravenscroft (PhonicInventories.com, working in association with Webmaster@wits.ac.za)
The conference process runs between April 7th 2010, when the upload of initial draft contributions commences, and July 31st 2010, when upload of final contributions accepted for the refereed conference proceedings is completed.
The conference process involves the following stages:
Details on the stages involved in preparing and uploading contributions are provided in the Call for Papers on this website. Detailed information on the reviewing process and criteria used in reviewing of contributions is provided in the Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers on this website.
Upload dates for contributions to the virtual conference: between April 7th and 9th 2010.
Virtual conference ends: April 9th 2010.
Display of abstracts and reviewing process: between April 16th and May 31st 2010.
Deadline for receipt of reviews of contributions: May 31st 2010.
Upload of camera ready (pdf) versions of accepted contributions for the refereed conference proceedings: July 31st 2010.
Details of the stages involved in reviewing and upload are provided in the Call for Papers on this website. A Reviewer’s Form is also provided on this website, which provides an idea of how the guidelines and criteria for review of contributions will be applied in practice.
As part of the pre-conference workshop process, templates are being developed for:
The templates will provide outlines which can be used for the preparing of contributions in each of these areas. These will be posted on this website as they become available from the pre-conference workshop.
Additional information relevant to contributions in each of these categories can be found in the Call for Papers and the Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers on this website.
Forms for upload of camera-ready pdf contributions are also being prepared as part of the pre-conference workshop process. These will be posted on this website as they become available from the pre-conference workshop.
Additional information on the process involved in review and acceptance of contributions for the refereed conference proceedings can be found in both the Call for Papers and the Guidelines for Authors and Reviewers on this website.
Authors will be asked to certify at time of upload that their contributions to the virtual conference do not contain any information which is copyright protected, ethically inappropriate or offensive to individuals or organisations, or which might violate the intellectual property rights of others. Authors will also be asked to state that they take personal responsibility concerning any possible breach of copyright or intellectual property rights in material submitted to the conference.
Though reasonable care can be taken in reviewing and appraising contributions that material presented by contributors is of a good standard, it will not be possible to check for originality of contributions as part of the reviewing and appraisal process. For this reason, the programme committee and the University of the Witwatersrand take no responsibility for any violation of copyright or intellectual property rights in material published on this website as part of the conference process or as part of the refereed conference proceedings.
These disclaimers are made on the basis that certification will be provided by individual contributors at time of upload, that they take personal responsibility that any material made available by them on this website as part of the conference or as part of the refereed conference proceedings is not copyright protected, ethically inappropriate or offensive to individuals or organisations, or in violation of the intellectual property rights of others, either within South Africa (where the virtual conference is being hosted), or internationally.
Charles Potter PhD
Ray Basson PhD
(On behalf of the Programme Committee and the Wits Programme Evaluation Group, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg)