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We're so close to the finish line!
I think this course is providing a very thorough view and processes for evaluations, but I am a bit concerned about the grandiose level of evaluations presented. They seem very big and very involved. I am doing a SUPER small version of an evaluation more like the scale of the New Parent's Course in my internship and in the early stages of observing the workshops and creating a survey, I wonder if I'm doing enough. I haven't done half of the steps or processes in the book, because a) it's just me and b) it doesn't seem necessary. Can one truly call it an evaluation then? Does it have to include all the steps to be a well done evaluation that brings satisfactory results. I would imagine not, but it makes me feel a bit like I'm skipping steps/important areas.

On a separate note, I really liked Jason's comments about the unexpected elements of an evaluation and how can that affect the success of an evaluation. He asked a really good question and I don't know what might be unexpected that would have an impact.. I would imagine something happening to add more time/money could affect the success or putting time and energy into the evaluation only to have the data component fall through or get so little participation that the results couldn't really be generalized or applied to the population and then having to start over or choose a different data collection method. oooh... that would be hard. It feels like often the most appropriate or commonly picked tool is the survey. What is an alternate method to gather that data that doesn't contribute to data fatigue and is still a good way to collect/gather data on that scale? Interviews and focus groups are definitely more time consuming and possibly costly if you're bringing in outside evaluators...

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend! It's a wonderfully sunny Monday and baby girl is taking a nap, woohoo!
Looking back over this past week, I really enjoyed the communication and reporting materials. I believe this has been a key piece missing in a lot of the evaluations I've been on the receiving end of, that, or I was not considered important enough to include as an audience!  The charts are very helpful for me to visualize how I would layout reporting as well as what needs to be set as an expectation to deliver findings about the evaluation and include stakeholders in decision making. Thanks for your comment about it being considered a contract or at least being on the same page with expectations- that makes it clear how to use this if you were working primarily with the main stakeholder i.e. our course or what I'm mulling around doing for my internship.
The big picture is definitely setting in and I appreciate how the course is formatted into chunks allows for learning then integration then utilization.
As we get nearer to the end of the course, I'm thinking about the application in the "real world" of what I've learned here, and I really like evaluations. I think there is a process to follow but the results and spaces for evaluation seem endless. Would say that most evaluations are conducted as part of existing roles or is there a space out there for people to only do evaluations-- I would imagine that is much of a consultant role?
Where is the biggest place you use evaluation in your role? What do you find the most challenging piece or the piece that took you the longest to feel comfortable aka what would you spend more time practicing or reading about if one wanted to do more evaluating in their career?

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Gah, these last two weeks have been so hard. The material is just kicking my mommy brain's butt! I gloss over when I start reading about statistics and types of charts and statistical differences. My brain just refuses to cooperate. I have yet to meet a book or teacher (no offense intended) that can get this stuff to a) make sense and b) sink in. I know I tackled many of these topics and terms in my research class only a few quarters ago and hit it hard. I thought I understood it, but then when I read this chapter I get the huh? feeling over and over again.

It has been nice to talk over these concepts and try to put some of them into practice with our data assignment number 7, but because we chose Likert and mostly qualitative, I'm not really challenged to have to grasp many of these concepts or practice them.  When I think about the real world and the potential of my role changing after I get my degree, I get scared that I still don't fully understand some of the concepts that I might be asked to use in an HR and/or L&D specialist type role, especially around program evaluations. I feel like I understand the basic concepts, but if a boss were to ask me to perform a program evaluation I think I'd know where to start, but I'd feel real shaky if I did't have any guidance or instruction. I guess that's the implementation portion of this degree and a good reason to save the texts and assignments.

So all in all this chapter has just made me feel a bit insecure about how much I truly have learned... not just worked through enough to get the project done... eek!

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Questions/Moments of insight, frustrations:
-This week my biggest frustration surrounds being able to connect to other courses and/or extrapolate to other material I've learned. The text seems very straightforward and the pros/cons and advantages/disadvantages lists take some of the usual work to make connections out of the reading. I am having the imposter syndrome feelings this week of going through the motions and doing the work, but not really feeling like I'm growing much or pushing myself forward. I believe this is the midway hump and it will be a bit different going forward, or I'll need to find a way to push myself to connect better to the material or make connections to the outside world.

Impressions of what I or someone else said:
I believe the conversations around "tokenism" with Andrea most peaked my interest this week as that's not something I had thought about when inviting people to participate. I would not have thought that being the only one of a specific race would make one feel compelled to answer on behalf of the race as Andrea mentioned, but then again I'm white and part of the dominant culture- so I'm usually not in the minority and thus wouldn't feel that way. However, I can think to times I've been in meetings and the only one with a specific knowledge and felt compelled to answer, even if I didn't feel completely knowledgeable or able to speak freely. In thinking about addressing this issue, I'd think the answer would be to invite many groups of diverse people, but that doesn't ensure diversity in the group and/or might not always be possible. Also, I'm stuck on thinking how, if a person is in a focus group or interview, they don't feel isolated by their race if they end up being the only one. I think Andrea said she felt compelled to speak on behalf of her race, would the evaluator adjust their questioning depending on who arrived? I believe wording could be adjusted or changed to accommodate this.

Lastly, Alex's comments on cultural bias and environmental scan were interesting to me. I don't currently recall learning about this and/or how it would be implemented. Is this something we've covered in a past course/you're aware of?

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This week I felt a bit distracted! I struggle a bit more with the quantitative/research focused exploration as it can go over my head the first time and require extra work for the concepts to really sink in. The discussions this week were imperative to helping me realize a) I'm not alone in that and b) to clarify some of the designs that I wasn't 100% sure on. One of the things I will say I did love about the book was the visual representations of the study as well as the advantages/disadvantages list. I felt this was a strong UDL component that assisted my learning. I would never think to list the design types in a visualization. That was the most helpful!!

I really appreciated Louise's insights this week and her connections to the text, she's a rockstar at that. Especially her comments about how the studies are affected by the evaluation and their experience or lack there of. That is what I was really concerned about and somehow missed that quote, so it was reassuring to see that the authors did acknowledge that. Louise also mentioned looking into a COP and you in your comments to Cathy I believe mentioned hiring someone to help with the statistical analysis. Both are great options for me to hear about considering I feel weaker in those areas.

This week I fell like my learning was really demonstrated in my group  work. In discussion for the last assignment, I had some reservations about our questions that we proposed as I remember reading that the evaluation questions are more about what you want to evaluation about the program and I felt our questions were more specific about the tools used to do the evaluation.  It was nice to see your feedback and know that I was on the right track, I felt like I had the correct understanding of the text and was on the right track!

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I absolutely felt so much better about this week and my learning... funny how it always takes me a few weeks to get back into the swing of a new course, especially since I took last quarter off oh and birthed a human. Things are much better on that front and so I'm able to calm down a bit and contribute in a more meaningful way to my learning. I'm always amazed at the true flexibility and variation of being an adult learner and am constantly reminded of how true those principles of andragogy are and how they apply SO intensely to my learning.

I was able to spend a lot more time on the reading this week and go back and examine sections more fully. It also helped to do the discussion and the project as they were tied more directly to the reading, so application was more instant.

The group project is going really well and I love working with Louise and Tamar again- they're great partners and I feel really lucky that Louise and I overlap a bit in interest and Tamar was interested and flexible enough to let us focus on a parents course as a topic. It's nice to be in a space I feel comfortable with, but have it be new enough since it's Louise's course that I feel like I'm growing.

Questions/Curiosities:

How do you tell what is really making a program successful when there are so many variables? Like for the example we had in the discussion this week, it felt like doing an evaluation to determine if the program should continue or not is a HUGE task with SO many questions. How do you really know if the thing you're evaluating is what is making the program work?

How your learning is progressing in the course; for example

I REALLY have to read the chapters- like full reading, not just grad school skimming. I thought I could do that and get by, but the depth of my knowledge and application is SO much greater when I actually have time to digest the material. Unfortunately, not always possible, however, makes a huge difference.

I typically tend to engage with those peers that I know and am comfortable with, so I'm trying harder to focus on those whom I haven't spent a lot of time cultivating a relationship with or those that I don't usually comment on or don't have any comments yet to challenge myself. It's easy for me to respond to Jason, Matt, and Louise because I know them and they know me- thus I am more able to joke and be myself- a real conversation.

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Here we are at week two. I absolutely loved the Leach article and I think it gave me a lot to think about in terms the empowerment/disempowerment and hegemony conversation added to the evaluation/assessment conversation. The comments from my peers as well about how self assessment specifically has made them feel disempowered or per Mea she felt she had to give herself a lower grade because culturally that was what was dictated - I asked her to clarify because I'm really interested in what she means by this/where she thinks this comes from. I too, have often felt like I needed to grade myself down, that even when I felt like my work was excellent, I found spaces to pull out critique because submitted a self-assessment where I say, "hey! Look at how amazing I am!" somehow just didn't feel right or deserved. I personally feel like I can attribute this to so many grades over the year where I felt like I got a great great, but really didn't work that hard or learn- so even now in grad school when I know I'm busting my but to understand and retain and apply material, I still feel the need to grade down because there is always more I could have done. It's so interesting to me how our culture of standardization and testing and grades has made me feel that need.

I am truly hoping that as I dive more into the different types of evaluation and apply that to a program I can find alternate ways to assess not only myself, but give those options to my future students to try and recognize what I went through/what they may be going through. As always, the piece I most struggle with is how to be culturally aware because I am part of the dominant culture and my experiences reinforce the hegemonic norms even if I'm not overtly pushing them. So how do I recognize them when they pop up in my design or how do I ensure an empowering experience and not the opposite?

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4/7/19

I think this GIF most accurately describes my learning at the moment. It is incredibly rewarding to be privileged enough to even try to attempt this course, but who knew reading could be so difficult with an infant! So many things to do that finding time to sit down and think has been interesting. I think evaluation is a really great subject and I know it’s going to be essential for what I do going forward.

So far, the text has been a great introduction to the topic and I feel the tone and style will fit with me. The definitions of evaluation while varied, definitely shed light on the multidimensional nature of evaluation and the aspects that will need to be considered. I particularly liked that the authors included what evaluation is NOT as well as what it is and included the figure of how research and evaluation compare. That is definitely not something I had thought to connect  or separate before reading this chapter. I see some similarities but mostly in the mechanics of how to collect data or design and analyze, but the differences in purpose make a really clear distinction for me.

Another area of curiosity for me is the human element of evaluation. The authors said they wouldn’t really focus on performance evaluation, Instead that “they treat the individual as a component of the programs success” (Russ-Eft and Preskill, p. 9) but I’m curious to see their thoughts on this and if this leaves enough room for the variability of humans and their impact in evaluations or the process of evaluating.

Lastly, the other area that was really new to me was presented in the history chapter.  I had no idea how much the governmental side of things influenced the evaluation landscape. It seems to me that as the politics changed throughout the years and different presidents decided to focus more or less on certain areas, the funding and significance of evaluations changed and eventually those conducting the evaluations took it upon themselves to keep transforming the landscape such that there is an international platform/association now. This made me think of my continuing education class where we looked at the effectiveness and professionalization of fields and how that shift has contributed to some great changes, however as there seems to be a shift towards internal evaluations, I wonder how important these sorts of organizations will be and how they will influence/ train/ guide ( or not) as companies use internal processes and people to conduct evaluations.

Questions/ further follow up:
1. How do you choose when it’s right to have internal or external?
2. Who really has to buy in for evaluations?
3. Learning more about  “insourcing” p.33
4. Remember tips on p. 33