Tools and Techniques for Evidencing Impact

A methodological presentation that draws a firm line between engagement and impact. Impact is defined as a tangible, measurable change benefiting a stakeholder group, while workshops, white papers, draft policies, leadership meetings and repository development are treated as pathways to impact rather than impact itself. The session urges ECR Champions to plan evidence collection upfront and gather it along the way, and sets out the available evidence types: quantitative measures such as attendance data, before-and-after understanding surveys, repository usage figures and social media analytics; and qualitative measures such as beneficiary testimonials and proxy indicators like the citation of a policy document in another institution's policy development.

The core of the session is the Outcomes and Impact Template, walked through in four steps: outputs or outcomes planned, impact expected, evidence that will demonstrate the change, and how the learning will be extended through networks of action and networks of influence, using a research ethics intervention as a worked example. The final slides cover three evidence instruments in detail: surveys, including the use of matched pre- and post-event Likert measures to establish statistical difference; testimonials, with strict verifiability requirements around authorship, letterhead, signature and the four things a testimonial must evidence; and case studies, with a full section-by-section template covering background, intervention detail, outcomes and acknowledgements. A completed case study from Covenant University is referenced as a model.