Constructing an Evaluation Plan

 

Your evaluation plan must focus on a program that is technology based.  The evaluation plan will focus on the technology implementation initiative in your school or organization. This type of work is generally known as program evaluation, but do not confuse program of program evaluation with program as in software. This is a common misconception. Again, you are not evaluating the software or platform.

In technology, program usually means a technology program–a type of application, a type of software. That is not the case here. Here, program of program evaluation refers to an initiative, an implementation, or a process. You are not proposing to evaluate some software application; you are proposing to evaluate some new technology investment’s impact on an organization or school. That investment could be software, and you might be interested in evaluating how the software has impacted student learning or employee productivity. However, the investment could also be hardware, which we would not refer to as a program in technology terms.

The following table compares some acceptable and unacceptable topics:

UNACCEPTABLE	ACCEPTABLE
Use of Accelerated Reader computer-based assessment software in one third grade class at ABC Elementary School	Use of Accelerated Reader computer-based assessment software in Grades 1-5 at ABC Elementary School
Use of Prezi on tablet PCs in social studies classes at Ellis High School	Implementation of 1:1 tablet PC initiative at Ellis High School
Benefit analysis of Cane River Milling Corporation’s migration from desktop-based to cloud-based computing	Implementation of Cloud-based computing at Cane River Milling Corporation
Google Classroom	Integration of Google Classroom during 2018-2019 Academic Year at ABC High School

Evaluation plans are frameworks for evaluating an initiative, and that initiative must be broad enough to justify a plan. The first two unacceptable topics above are too specific, too small-scale. Think about this logistically. If you begin using one app on an iPad like Accelerated Reader or Prezi for your work, whether it be to teach lessons or to improve on-the-job performance, would you take the time to compose a lengthy plan for how you will implement that app? Probably not. However, if your organization shifted to using iPads for some process, that may be a worthy topic because that process involves the entire organization and many or all of its members. The third unacceptable topic reads like a research topic, and, while program evaluation is a type of research, your evaluation plan is not a research paper; it is a plan. The execution of the evaluation plan would be a type of research, but your task is only to construct the plan; you will not execute what the plan outlines. The fourth unacceptable example topic is not an evaluative topic. To state simply “Google Classroom” does not identify what about Google Classroom will be evaluated. Your topic must reflect an evaluation of something; the phrase/title of the evaluation plan topic must, itself, represent something evaluative. For questions about whether the technology program you are considering is appropriate, contact Dr. Hebert before beginning your work.

Watch the video below for a narrated overview of the evaluation plan and its components. The examples provided in the video are tailored to education, but remember, that this evaluation plan may be applied in any professional context.

The planning worksheet may help you organize your strategy. Visuals (tables, graphs, figures) are always nice representations to accompany narratives; use them wisely, however. Ensure that you have more text than visuals. Important note: Do not copy/paste or even paraphrase any content from the example. Those actions are not permitted and will be considered plagiarism. The example is provided as a visual aide only. This document is an example, not an exemplar. In fact, some sections are lacking important content. It is, though, a good example of how to lay out the plan’s elements and represent relationships visually (e.g. table aligning indicators and benchmarks).

Assignment 9

Construct an evaluation plan of the technology based program you select. Use the planning worksheet and examples posted in Moodle to guide your work.

Please do not use any report templates in Microsoft Word (or whatever word processing software you choose). Feedback will be provided via comments in Microsoft Word, and the report templates often insert text in an array of text boxes that prevent comments from being inserted on specific words or sentences. Prepare your report in plain text and format headings and other elements (alignment, text attributes, color, etc.) however you wish, but do so with toolbar options or Microsoft Word’s Styles choices on the Home ribbon.

Do not submit PDF files. Submit only DOC, DOCX, or RTF.

Submit your evaluation plan using the Activity 12 submission link by December 1 by 11 p.m.