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:

2010/02/10

2010/02/23

2010/04/09

2010/08/25

2012/08/09

2012/10/12

2013/03/13

2014/03/25

2014/04/15

2014/05/19

2015/06/29

2015/07/24

2015/12/07

2016/04/15

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:

1. Participant reaction (some measure of satisfaction);
2. Teaching and facilitation (strengths and weaknesses of the presenter, who may (or may not) change the next time);
3. Outcomes (what difference/benefits/intentions did the participant experience);
4. Future programming (other educational needs/desires); and
5. 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.