April « 2016 « Evaluation is an Everyday Activity

NOTE: This was written last week. I didn’t have time to post. Enjoy.

Methodology, aka implementation, monitoring, and deliveryis important. What good is it if you just gather the first findings that come to mind. Being rigorous here is just as important as when you are planning and modeling the program. So I’ve searched the last six years of blogs posts and gathered some of them for you. They are all about Survey, a form of methodology. Survey is a methodology that is often used by Extension, as it is easy to use. However, organizing the survey, getting the survey’s back, and dealing with non-response are problematic (another post, another time).

The previous posts are organized by date from the oldest to the most recent:

2016/04/21 (today’s post isn’t hyperlinked)

Just a few words on surveys today: A colleague asked about an evaluation survey for a recent conference. It will be an online survey probably using the University system, Qualtrics. My colleague jotted down a few ideas. The thought occurred to me that this book (by Ellen Taylor-Powell and Marcus Renner) would be useful. On page ten of this book, it asks for the type of information that is needed and wanted. It lists five types of possible information:

Participant reaction (some measure of satisfaction);
Teaching and facilitation (strengths and weaknesses of the presenter, who may (or may not) change the next time);
Outcomes (what difference/benefits/intentions did the participant experience);
Future programming (other educational needs/desires); and
Participant background (who is attending and who isn’t can be answered here).

Thinking through these five categories made all the difference for my colleague. (Evaluation was a new area.) I had forgotten about how useful this booklet is for people being exposed to evaluation for the first time and to surveys, as well. I recommend it.

The WECT program arbitrarily divided the WECT program into four parts. Those “modules” are:

Program Planning and Logic Modeling;
Program Implementation, Monitoring, and Delivery;
Data Management and Analysis (divided into Qualitative data and Quantitative data); and
Program Evaluation Utilization

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“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”

~~Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, 1970 .

The Gray Panthers is a group of people advocating for the rights of oldsters (among other things). Aging is the brunt of many jokes. At least in the US. Unfortunately.

A long time friend of mine says . If you get there, it takes as long as it takes. (Some people say the years wiz by as the days drag on and on and on…I know this first hand.)

Another long time friend relayed the NPR story about aging, which says anchovies, rosemary, vino, and leisure are the answers. Now I’m not saying that anchovies, rosemary, vino, and leisure are the reason evaluation as a discipline has come as far as it has in the last 50+ years; I’m just saying that perhaps we need to look a little deeper than just the surface. I think Maggie Kuhn says it clearly: “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”

Stand up for what you believe! (even if your voice shakes).

I believe that evaluation makes a difference.

I believe that there is a need for evaluation.

I believe that y’all do evaluation every day in the choices you make.

No one said making choices would be easy…even getting out of bed in the morning! If make a choice, you take a chance; if you take a chance your life will change.