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This week I would like to summarize my major takeaway from the course. Throughout the course of this quarter I have learned that evaluations are very crucial since they help us to understand whether the goals of a given program are being achieved or not.
Evaluations are not performed in a vacuum -they should involve different stakeholders (primary, secondary, and tertiary). These stakeholders should be kept posted about every step of the evaluation. Communication means may vary based on the stakeholder.

It is ethical to use results from evaluations since they are time consuming and sometimes costly.

Finally, evaluations should be guided by the mission and values of the organization.

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This week I would like to focus on the importance of needs assessment. After reading the three articles for this week, I came to a clear understanding that before implementing solutions to a given problem, it is important to assess the current resources such as abilities, knowledge, interests, aspirations and intention. The needs assessment process includes a few steps: Collecting information about a target population or community; Deciding what needs are being met and what resources exist; Determining what needs are not being addressed.

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Last week I learned that evaluations do not end with collecting the data and analyzing it. Rather, the data must be communicated to stakeholders including primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders. It is crucial to understand the audience so that a proper means of communication can be used. For our project, I realized that primary stakeholders need a more detailed report whereas the tertiary stakeholders just need a summarized report. The other thing that the authors explained was that communication must be done continuously. (I’ll add more information after completing this week’s readings)

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Last week we discussed different forms of data collection. In his discussion, Benjamin Reed said that, “Chapter 10 on surveys read like a personal laundry list of thing I personally struggle with with surveys. They are often the first option picked, with little forethought, and then the data often goes unused. I saw this at UW, at Seattle U, and I'm sure you all have seen this too.” My understanding was that he did not like the method and that it was too simple that is why many people use it. The other point was that the results from the survey are not usually used. I had a different feeling because I have seen some courses change due to results from the survey. Some of instructors make changes in the following quarter others make changes during the same quarter.

This week Heather said that, “In class, teachers will often give out mid-quarter evaluations to help them understand how well the class is learning, and if anything needs to be changed. While many teachers do this, I feel like the ones who communicate the changes with the class, and actually incorporate changes into the second half of the class, is a great example of communicating the data and bringing about helpful changes.” She also mentioned that she has seen this done in most of the AEDT classes. Her discussion helped me to understand that sometimes changes may be applied right away and other times changes may occur after sometime.

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One of the things I have noticed about myself is that when I read my peers’ posts I try to spend more time to understand their discussions before I respond. During the first few weeks I responded to my peers without taking time to understand their views. I minded more about the number of times I posted but not how much I learned from my peers.

During this week, I got comments about my posts and the group assignment we submitted. My major takeaway from the comments I received is that questions have a great influence in the choice of evaluation method we may choose to use. This is also true with research. One may not know what method he/she is going to use until he/she has the question.
The other thing I learned from reading chapter thirteen is that some people are more interested in numbers and others are not. It is very important to understand the population you are dealing with in order to choose the data analysis method that fits them.

I am still struggling to understand how existing framework such as UDL can be used to analyze qualitative data. Would you please explain this more explicitly? Thanks

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We have three chapters assigned for next week but I have only read chapter nine and it is this chapter and the preceding chapters that I’ll focus on in my learning log. After reading chapter nine and comparing it with chapters seven and eleven, I have come to an understanding that every evaluation method has inherent or innate advantages and disadvantages. I am also learning that every method has validity and reliability issues that may be because of the disadvantages pertained to that method. The question then becomes; how can you increase the validity and reliability of a given method? Russs-Eft and Preskill (2009) implicitly explain that you can use more than one evaluation methods to ensure that the data collected is valid. For example, if an evaluator decides to collect data through observations, he/she should also conduct interviews or use archival data to fill in the missing parts. Triangulation of evaluation methods is like what I learned in my research class.

I appreciate the authors’ explanation that observations can be carried out more than one time and in different places. This is very important because not only can the evaluator get better results, he/she can determine how much external and internal factors impact the results.

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I appreciated reading chapters seven and eleven. After reading the different forms of data collection and looking at my group’s evaluation questions, I came to realize that one can use more than one evaluation methods. The following are the questions my group came up with and the different methods that I think might be appropriate based on the question: (a) How has students’ attendance, preparation, passing of classes, and graduation rates increased due to the Cultural and Family Partnerships program in 2016/2017? (b) How has cross-cultural communication increased for teachers because of the Cultural and Family Partnerships program in 2016/2017? and (c) How does the Cultural and Family Partnerships program emphasize the role for parents in the education of their children because of in 2016/2017? The best way to collect data based on the first question is by using archival data. The second question requires using interview questions and the last question requires observation.

As I reflected more about our method, I was reminded of triangulation of data that I covered in my research class. I believe triangulation of our data will make it easier for us to obtain more comprehensive data.

Chapter eleven talks about creating probing questions during interview process. This is one of the areas that I need to develop. It is also very hard for me to remain neutral during the interview session.

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In this learning log, I would like to share my learning progress and the impression I have about the design of this course. After reading chapter six from the book, I got a clear understanding that research and evaluation are pretty much the same in how they are conducted. When I took my research classes, we talked about internal and external validity, pretest-posttest, control groups, etc. The big difference that I learned is that in research, the researcher’s main goal is to make conclusions whereas the evaluator’s goal is to make decisions based on the results.

I like how we work in small groups for different assignments. I tend to participate more in a small group than in large group.

Towards the end of this week I realized that I need to improve on how to design evaluation questions and to have the right assumptions.

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Learning log 1

This week’s reading was an introduction to the theory of evaluation and I was fascinated by the different definitions of evaluation. After reading the author’s definition of the logic of evaluation, I felt that something was missing and so I decided to do some research to get a deeper understanding of the term. I realized that Russ-Eft and Preskill (2009)’s logic model works after the program has been implemented. It doesn’t explain the first step whereby a given phenomenon is studied and the steps that follow discovering the problem. I decided to find a model that helped me to understand the evaluation process in a much better way.

Based on the model below, I came to understand that Inputs are the resources and raw materials that go into your program and this applies to any kind of program. Consider the resources that you need to operate your program, such as funding, staff, or volunteers. Some programs may require a facility, transportation services, educational materials, and other resources. During the evaluation process, the evaluator needs to understand whether they have enough input or not. Outputs on the other hand, quantify the services you provide. For example, courses offered, number of services received in an hour and so forth.

The authors mentioned that evaluation is not research. When I first read that statement I didn’t agree with it. This is because after reading couple of pages some of their explanations sounded like action research. After reflecting on this statement for a few days I came to an understanding that although evaluation involves research, it differs from research because it is value-based and research is not value-based-research is based on the level of significance.