Site Visits: Conversations for Practice

The existence of multiple purposes for site visits can explain some of the variation seen in the design and use of site visits in practice. In some instances, site visits are one element of a larger evaluation design where results are blended with data from a variety of sources. In other instances, site visits stand alone as the entire evaluation. This chapter discusses three case studies from the perspective of evaluation practitioners that are aligned with the typology presented in the previous chapter by Chapman Haynes, Murphy, and Patton. They illustrate three distinct conditions where site visits have been used in evaluation. The cases selected include two site visits that are part of a suite of numerous evaluation activities that comprise the evaluation design and one case where the site visit comprises the entire evaluation. The chapter concludes with five cross-cutting themes that form practical considerations for incorporating site visits into evaluation practice.