{"id":338,"date":"2025-10-07T14:24:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T18:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=338"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:03:51","slug":"12-2-introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/chapter\/12-2-introduction\/","title":{"raw":"12.2 Introduction","rendered":"12.2 Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"Monitoring is a \u201ccousin\u201d to evaluation research questions we covered in previous chapters. As related concepts, they complement and sometimes rely on each other, yet they are different. Monitoring is an exercise that compares different aspects of the intervention to some norms. It is used to record the intervention evolution as it tries to achieve some pre-determined objectives. Monitoring is intended to gather information about the performance of an intervention or an organization. Unlike evaluation research\u2014which examines causal relationships between elements related to the intervention\u2014monitoring does not seek to establish causality (McDavid et al., 2019). Instead, it focuses on tracking progress through selected indicators to provide an ongoing sense of how the intervention is unfolding.\r\n\r\nThe arrows in Figure 4.3 illustrate the possible monitoring focal points: resources, activities, and intervention results. Monitoring information can be used in some evaluative research projects, but its main purpose and how it is conducted are different. Monitoring is used mainly for management purposes, including learning, control, and accountability (Van Dooren et al., 2015).\r\n<div>\r\n<blockquote>Monitoring systematically tracks progress against a range of predetermined areas, often against performance indicators and targets. (Markiewicz &amp; Patrick, 2022\/2016, p. 122)<\/blockquote>\r\nMonitoring reports can provide crucial information when conducting evaluations.\r\n<div>\r\n<blockquote>Evaluation uses the results of monitoring, complemented by other forms of data gathering, to undertake further and deeper investigations, and through a logical pattern of reasoning, arrives at evaluative conclusions. (Markiewicz &amp; Patrick, 2022\/2016, p. 123)<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<p>Monitoring is a \u201ccousin\u201d to evaluation research questions we covered in previous chapters. As related concepts, they complement and sometimes rely on each other, yet they are different. Monitoring is an exercise that compares different aspects of the intervention to some norms. It is used to record the intervention evolution as it tries to achieve some pre-determined objectives. Monitoring is intended to gather information about the performance of an intervention or an organization. Unlike evaluation research\u2014which examines causal relationships between elements related to the intervention\u2014monitoring does not seek to establish causality (McDavid et al., 2019). Instead, it focuses on tracking progress through selected indicators to provide an ongoing sense of how the intervention is unfolding.<\/p>\n<p>The arrows in Figure 4.3 illustrate the possible monitoring focal points: resources, activities, and intervention results. Monitoring information can be used in some evaluative research projects, but its main purpose and how it is conducted are different. Monitoring is used mainly for management purposes, including learning, control, and accountability (Van Dooren et al., 2015).<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>Monitoring systematically tracks progress against a range of predetermined areas, often against performance indicators and targets. (Markiewicz &amp; Patrick, 2022\/2016, p. 122)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Monitoring reports can provide crucial information when conducting evaluations.<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>Evaluation uses the results of monitoring, complemented by other forms of data gathering, to undertake further and deeper investigations, and through a logical pattern of reasoning, arrives at evaluative conclusions. (Markiewicz &amp; Patrick, 2022\/2016, p. 123)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-338","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":333,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":692,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/338\/revisions\/692"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/333"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/338\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/foundationsofevaluation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}