Utah State Library  

Outcomes evaluation looks at impacts/benefits/changes to your clients (as a result of your program(s) efforts) during and/or after their participation in your programs. Outcomes evaluation can examine these changes in the short-term, intermediate term and long-term.

Outcomes evaluation is often described first by looking at its basic components. Outcomes evaluation looks at programs as systems that have inputs, activities/processes, outputs and outcomes -- this system's view is useful in examining any program!

• Inputs –
  These are materials and resources that the program uses in its activities, or processes, to serve clients, eg, equipment, staff, volunteers, facilities, money, etc. These are often easy to identify and many of the inputs seem common to many organizations and programs.
• Activities –
  These are the activities, or processes, that the program undertakes with/to the client in order to meet the clients' needs, for example, teaching, counseling, sheltering, feeding, clothing, etc. Note that when identifying the activities in a program, the focus is still pretty much on the organization or program itself, and still is not so much on actual changes in the client.
• Outputs –
  These are the units of service regarding your program, for example, the number of people taught, counseled, sheltered, fed, clothed, etc. The number of clients served, books published, etc., very often indicates nothing at all about the actual impacts/benefits/changes in your clients who went through the program -- the number of clients served merely indicates the numerical number of clients who went through your program.
• Outcomes –
  These are actual impacts/benefits/changes for participants during or after your program
  -- for example, for a smoking cessation program, an outcome might be "participants quit smoking" (notice that this outcome is quite different than outputs, such as the "number of clients who went through the cessation program")
  -- These changes, or outcomes, are usually expressed in terms of:
  -- -- knowledge and skills (these are often considered to be rather short-term outcomes)
  -- -- behaviors (these are often considered to be rather intermediate-term outcomes)
  -- -- values, conditions and status (these are often considered to be rather long-term outcomes)
• Outcome targets –
  These are the number and percent of participants that you want to achieve the outcome, for example, an outcome goal of 5,000 teens (10% of teens in Indianapolis) who quit smoking over the next year
• Outcome indicators –
  These are observable and measurable “milestones” toward an outcome target. These are what you'd see, hear, read, etc., that would indicate to you whether you're making any progress toward your outcome target or not,for example, the number and percent of teen participants who quit smoking right after the program and six months after the program -- these indicators give you a strong impression as to whether 5,000 teens will quit or not over the next year from completing your program.