Here’s a link to a free resource on program evaluation titled, Basic Guide to Program Evaluation. The guide seems like a great resource for those who need help in getting started. With some great summaries and tables comparing the pros/cons of different methods and designs, this guide seems like a great, free resource.
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10 responses to “Guide to program evaluation”
I found this site to be a great reference for program evaluation. Being that I am not well versed in evaluating programs, this site is perfect for me. It is very much an “Evaluating Programs for Dummies†type resource. For, it lays everything out so simple for the reader. My largest concern with beginning to evaluate programs is understanding what the program evaluation should look like. Browsing the site I came across an extremely detailed outline of a program evaluation, explaining the contents of a program evaluation.
The site was very thorough and objective. It not only told the reader how to evaluate a program, but ‘who’ should evaluate a program; ‘what’ should be evaluated; ‘when’ one should evaluate a program; ‘where’ an evaluation should take place; and ‘why’ one should evaluate a program. Thank you for the reference; it will definitely benefit me in my evaluation.
This is a valuable find for help in understanding and getting started with program evaluation. It is a feature rich 12 step (sections) dealing with the who,what, when, where, and why of program evaluation. It also lays out three PE models – goal based, process based, and outcome based, along with a nice section on methods for getting information and how to analyze the data. It concludes with a detailed 9 step plan on how to prepare a program evaluation and what to avoid. Another benefit of accessing this link was the exposure to the fantastic Free Management Library of which the guide is a part. This may well be considered the mother lode of profit and non-profit management information and resources.
I am involved in two non profit activities: one being on the Strategic Planning Team of our church and the other involving the start up of a fraternal 501(c)(8) organization. This find is very helpful.
This is an awesome program evaluation resource site. Thanks so much for posting it. I’m in a Prog Eval class right now and while out text isn’t difficult to read, I do find this site to be even easier and more straightforward in explaining program evaluation. The overview chart was especially helpful.
Hi, Han,
As a student who is new to program evaluation, this website is very valuable and helpful to me to understand the overall comcept of program evaluation. Simple language, straight forward, and systematic. Thank you very much. I especially like the “Overview of Methods to Collect Information” section, which provide a extensive information about different kinds of data collection methods and their pros and cons. It took me about 2 hours to go through that, and afterwards I feel easier to read the text book my professor assigns with a big picture of program evaluation in my mind, which I got from your blog.
The Basic Guide to Program Evaluation is so simple to read and understand. I am in Program Evaluation and even though we have a book that we are reading this so much easier to comprehend. This is like Program Evaluation 101. I like the recommended books I wouldn’t mind reading, Real World Evaluation. In class we have to evaluate a program so this reference will help to see if we are on the right track. Thank you
Thanks for the great link! I found it to be a really useful site and was able to link to other great information from it. I really liked the straight forward way in which it was organized. I’m in currently taking an introductory program evaluation class and this was a great starting point for research.
The information provided is very useful especially for someone who has a hard time understanding the meaning of program evaluation and its application. I like the way the information is broken down very simple and easy to read. Also the various ways it shows the reader how to collect information, analyzing the information and also things to avoid when conducting a program evaluation.
I especially appreciated the section on myths about program evaluation and the section on methodology choices. As I am currently working on a program evaluation project, it was helpful to know that program evaluations do not usually include the same rigorous scientific process as I have been previously exposed. The approach seems to be more liberal, giving room to collect a variety of data in a nummber of different ways. The methodology section offered several suggestions and gave detailed explanations of each. This site appears to be extremely usueful for those who want the quick and dirty on program evaluation, without doing tons of research and studying.
I enjoyed the myths about program evaluation and methodology sections of the blog. It was good to know that program evaluation does not have to involve rigorous research to be effective. You can use a variety of methodologies to gather different information in a way that infoms you evaluation question best. You can utilize an approach that may not be scientifically appropriate, but appropriate for you specifi evaluation project.
This is a great website to quickly answer any questions about what program evaluation in general. Furthermore, it defines the many ways program evaluation can be operationalized, such as process and outcomes based evaluations. I also like how it lists the different methods that one can use to collect information in a program evaluation. Overall, it provides a quick and usefull reference to program evaluation.