Expert external evaluations are continuously monitored and assessed. For this particular reason, we follow up the project Expert External Evaluation with an evaluation workshop in which all partners in the project participate – expert external evaluators, participating educational organisations and the Slovenian Institute of Adult Education. The conclusions serve to complete and develop the model of expert external evaluation in adult education.
 

EVALUATION WORKSHOP IN 2012
 
In December 2012 we organised an evaluation workshop for all the participating expert external evaluators and the representatives of the Ljudska univerza Šentjur and Ljudska univerza Murska Sobota who took part in the 2012 pilot implementation of expert external evaluations. The workshop provided a forum for the debate on what the expert external evaluators and the participating educational organisations experienced in the process of the expert external evaluation, and then formulated joint conclusions that would help to further build the concept of expert external evaluation in adult education. We ended our work together with refreshments and the hopes for continuing successful cooperation in 2013.
 
Some impressions from the representatives of educational organisations who participated in the pilot expert external evaluations in 2012:

Some impressions from the expert external evaluators about the pilot expert external evaluations in 2012:

EVALUATION WORKSHOP IN 2013
Similar as a year before, we have carried out an evaluation meeting with the participating external expert evaluators and representatives of organizations. This year the following organizations were taking part in the expert external evaluations: Srednja zdravstvena šola Celje, Srednja šola za farmacijo, kozmetiko in zdravstvo Ljubljana ter Razvojno izobraževalni center Novo mesto.
 
Some impressions from the representatives of organisations who participated in expert external evaluations in 2013:
 

• »When we found out about the deadlines we got afraid, as the work was supposedto be done during the holidays. But we are aware that time is allways a problem and there is always something…«
• »Guidelines for our work are prepared very concretely, it is a really good guide and we had no problems in the preparation of self-assessment. Other staff of the organization has helped us.”
• »The positive aspect was that we have seen all the content we have during the preparation of the self-evaluation. It was a positive experience, co-workers got to know each other better and we found out, what everyone of us is actually doing.«
• » We attended OQEA training and it was always said "You're doing quality". I would like to add that  you can have 5 documents, but if a person doesn’t feel the quality, then this is not ok.«
• »When we decided not to go in the SIQ, we focused on quality. Only then when we felt relieved, we started to deal with quality improvements. The problem is that there are many, many projects, national institutions have developed their own systems but schools need to know how to select them. If you want to take part in all of them, we would go crazy. We are therefore in these things rational - your expert external evaluation  has a normal amount of requests, everything was understandable. I believe also that the recommendations in the report will result in improvements.«

 
Some impressions from the expert external evaluators about expert external evaluations in 2013:

• »The expert external evaluation is an approach that shows to the organization what else belongs to the internal quality system. The government wants to dictate to the organization to worry about the quality, but doesn’t show how.«
• »I always praise SIAE and I will do so again. The project seems to be necessary, it is important to highlight professionalism, systematics,  and long correspondence. To write the assessment is a big responsibility!«
• »I agree - the support of SIAE is really good! It was easier to do it than last year.«
• »I too noticed the influence of "mileage". At the same time, this role really requires a lot of effort. Especially because it is running simultaneously in several organizations.«
• »The SIAE really gives the maximum support. If I compare it with others, here all the details are sculptured, the methodology is outlined clearly, you are guided and you're in safe limits. Also particularly striking role of the coordinator and his support is very good.«

EVALUATION WORKSHOP IN 2014
At the end of 2014, we carried out this time the third evaluation meeting with the participating external expert evaluators and representatives of the Zasavska ljudska univerza Trbovlje, Zavod za izobraževanje in kulturo Črnomelj and Center za dopisno izobraževanje Univerzum. This year we have confirmed everything that we have said in the previous years, and we can also add:
 

• “All calls for applications are at the wrong time.”
• “We received a lot of the information from the previously involved organizations, they had a good experience, we knew what and how much work is ahead of us. We received clear instructions and there were no problems.”
• “Our motivation was the feedback of the evaluators – to see from the external point of view where we are good and where there is oportunity for improvement. We were well informed about everything but weren’t sure if we are up for the challenge because there is a lot of work with  gathering evidence which is self-evident to us. Other organizations probably do not take part in EEE due to lack of time. Since we successfully carried out an expert external evaluation we hope that sometime in the future in any of the tenders we will have the advantage over other organizations.”

EVALUATION WORKSHOP IN 2015

At the end of 2015, precisely on 16th December 2015, we carried out an evaluation workshop with the participating expert external evaluators and  representatives of this year’s participating organizations Center za izobraževanje in kulturo Trebnje, Invel, Inkubator za razvoj podjetništva d.o.o. Velenje and Ljudska univerza zavod za kulturo in izobraževanje Slovenska Bistrica. We have confirmed everything that we have determined in previous years with further innovations in the field of the introduction of online application for submission of self-assessments and innovation with the introduction of the new field of evaluations:
 

• This year instead of in physical form the evaluators reviewed the documentation in e-application. Also the participating organizations have submitted their self-assessments for the first time electronically rather than in paper form. Responses from evaluators: from the beginning it was a little bit harder, but once you get used to, but it is much better than the binders with all the papers; it is also better from a psychological point of view. Representatives of the participating organizations were unanimous they cannot imagine the evaluations without this application and how were they carried out before; everything is structured and guided. They cited some examples of how we can improve the experience of working in a web application, which we will try to enable to organizations, participating in evaluations in 2016.
• This year's novelty was a also a new content field of Development orientation of adult education organisations. We have discussed the understanding of specific criteria and how they were understood in practice - if, in spite of the interpretation and the instructions the organizations have misinterpreted them. For some, we find that they will require an additional explanation and several examples from the practice. The introduction of the new content field was accepted with big interest due to the actuality for the organizations.