Achieving Research Impact

This lecture will introduce the concept of a logic model, defining what it is, why it's important to know about logic models for understanding the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact.

There are 3 downloads for this lecture: a blank logic model worksheet that you can use to sketch out your own logic model (for planning, and for evaluation), and two logic models that have been filled out as examples for you to reference when you're creating your own logic model (one for planning, one for evaluation).

David will briefly explain how the logic model concept relates to the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact.

Anticipating your long-term impacts first, is a popular concept used in business. By imagining and articulating what your "promised land" looks like, you can plan accordingly. All of your project's outputs and activities will be strategically designed to help you achieve the impacts you are striving for.

There is a downloadable worksheet for this lecture to help you articulate your desired long-term, medium-term, and short-term impact(s).

This lecture introduces and defines what is meant by an "output".

There is a downloadable worksheet to help you articulate the outputs you need to generate for achieving the outcomes (impacts) you previously identified.

This lecture introduces and defines what is meant by an "activity".

There is a downloadable worksheet to help you articulate the activities you need to do, to generate the outputs you previously identified.

In this lecture, David will explain why it is important to create a logic model for planning and evaluating your project(s) or program(s).

In this lecture, David will explain why there is a logic model underlying the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact framework, the history of impact at York University, issues about attribution, and the "linear challenge" of the CPPI.  David will tell stories to illustrate examples of how the CPPI has been used by several organizations.

There is a downloadable peer-reviewed paper that explains the CPPI in more detail.

In this lecture, you'll learn the 5 elements necessary for any good pathway (to impact), and how the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact comprises all 5 elements.

In this lecture, David explains how different KT professionals have applied the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact for KT planning, and that if you want to build your own specific pathway toward impact, it will take effort (but hopefully you'll see it's worth it).

As with any framework, the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact has its limitations. This lecture will identify and explain these limitations.

In this lecture, David will overview the components of the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact framework at a very high level. He will review each stage of the framework from research to dissemination, uptake, implementation and impact, and explain what each of them means.

In this lecture, David begins by defining what "co-production" means, and what it looks like at each stage of the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact framework.

This lecture begins by defining what is meant by 'stakeholder' and how 'stakeholder engagement' and 'co-production' are different within the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact. David explains the difference between 'co-production partners' as one category of stakeholder, and 'end users' as another.  David will explain how the engagement of end-users is conceptualized in the CPPI and how this is different than the engagement of co-production partners.

There are a lot of arrows in the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact diagram. In this lecture, David explains what is represented by each set of arrows, and will illustrate with stories.

Co-production is emphasized throughout all the stages of the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact. In this lecture, you'll learn how to create a plan for working with your co-production partner(s) and why it's important to have such a plan in the first place.  David will describe and explain the important components of a partnership agreement and where you can find helpful resources.

There is a worksheet for this lecture, that will help you work through the important aspects of a partnership before you begin working with your co-production partner(s).

In this lecture, you'll learn the critical importance of working with (listening to) stakeholders as early as possible in your project, for informing your research questions. By investigating research questions that are important to your end-users, you and your co-production partner(s) can maximize the relevance of the outputs that you will co-create through the research process.  Examples and stories will be used throughout to illustrate different aspects of stakeholder engagement and incorporating feedback to increase the relevance of research and its outputs.

There is a downloadable worksheet that you can use to help you apply the concepts taught in this lecture, for planning the research stage of your project.

In this lecture, you will learn how dissemination is defined and how you can design products by asking for and incorporating stakeholder input.

There is a downloadable worksheet that can help you apply the concepts that you learned in this lecture, to your own specific pathway.

In this lecture you will learn more about uptake, how it is defined, and how the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact gets messy at this stage because the dissemination, uptake, and implementation stages begin to overlap each other.

Uptake is defined as occurring in several stages that act as 'bridges' from dissemination to implementation. In this lecture, the difference between dissemination and the stages of uptake (according to Skinner's 2007 paper) will be explained, along with ideas for engaging with stakeholders to maximize the uptake of your work. You will be introduced to the concept of creating "sticky" messages, and other important concepts for increasing the uptake of your work.

The downloadable worksheet for this lecture will help you apply the concepts toward completing your own specific research to impact pathway. You're halfway there!

In this lecture, a implementation is defined, and related to the dissemination and uptake stages that preceded it. Once again, this lecture includes a consideration of how stakeholder engagement can inform the implementation stage, including (but not limited to) any contextual adaptations that are needed to your outputs.

There is a downloadable worksheet that will help you apply the concepts taught in this lecture.

In order to create an impact pathway for your research project(s), you need to have a certain degree of 'impact literacy'. In this lecture, the term research impact literacy is defined, followed by a rationale for why it is important to become 'impact literate'. Examples and stories illustrate the concepts throughout.

There is no worksheet for "impact planning" because all of the previous planning worksheets are for planning toward achieving impact.

In this lecture, different types of indicators are defined, and David explains the types of audiences who may be interested in receiving data from the indicators you create to evaluate your project(s).  Research data management will be explained, in terms of current and future requirements for Canadian researchers.

In this lecture you will learn about how to work with your co-production partner(s) and others, to determine which indicators to define, where the data will come from, who will collect and share the data, and with whom, and other details related to working with stakeholders for evaluating your project(s).  David will illustrate these points by telling a story about a researcher and co-production partner working together to conduct research, but also collect evaluation data along each stage of their pathway.

Students will be directed to refer back to their logic model worksheet they created in Section 2 of this course, and download the worksheet available for this lecture.

This lecture will focus on how you can engage with your end users and co-production partners for evaluation at the research stage. This could be for the purpose of informing your research questions and methods with stakeholder feedback, or for creating mutually useful indicators to evaluate your pathway at the research stage.

There is a downloadable worksheet for this lecture.

This lecture is about evaluation at the dissemination stage: for informing the design of your products with stakeholder input, and in terms of creating indicators to measure your progress at this stage of your impact pathway.

There is a downloadable worksheet for this lecture.

Uptake is probably the most difficult stage of the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact to evaluate. How do you know if people are considering how to use your work? This is where ongoing relationships with your stakeholders is really important, because the only way to find that out is to ask them.  This lecture will reinforce the notion of setting up your project in response to stakeholder needs, so that by the time you are ready for dissemination, uptake and implementation, your end-users will see value in what you've produced. 

In this lecture, uptake is defined as several sub-stages in between (and blending into) the dissemination stage on one side of the Co-Produced Pathway to Impact and the implementation stage on the other side.

There is a downloadable worksheet for this lecture.

In this lecture, you'll learn about how you can engage with stakeholders to become aware of the adoption and implementation of your outputs and create indicators for evaluating your project at the implementation stage of your pathway. 

There is a downloadable worksheet for this lecture.

The definition(s) for impacts as being short-term, medium-term or long-term outcomes, is revisited, and includes information about how to create indicators to evaluate impact(s). This is followed by insights about how to discover impact(s) that have occurred as a result of your work, illustrated with a story.

There are three worksheets available for download.

In this lecture, David will bring it all together and summarize what you've learned in this course.

There is additional material available for download.

See behind-the-scenes footage of the making of "Achieving Research Impact".

See more behind-the-scenes footage of the making of "Achieving Research Impact".

In this bonus lecture, the funders who enabled the creation of this course content are acknowledged, followed by a downloadable list of additional resources you can access online. These include more detailed reading material, guides and tools for you to be able to understand, plan for, and evaluate the impact(s) of your research.