Easier said than done

With regards to our second assignment (Evaluation of a programme or part of a programme) I have decided to carry out an evaluation of the BSc Technology & E-Commerce. The reason is that I feel that I will be able to access enough information to make a judgment, but more importantly, I took part in the BSc program committee meeting only few weeks ago.

Easier said than done would you say? Indeed, Where to start? What to keep? How to do it? There is obviously a need for a methodology, maybe some tools and guidelines.

Knox (2002) in his book give three examples of evaluation approaches which include:

a) External review: emphasises external evaluation for purpose of program accountability;

b) Internal review: emphasises internal evaluation for the purpose of program improvement;

c) Action research: emphasises use of conclusions to improve practice.

Each approach is further described but already I believe I could choose one approach as main methodology and try to implement bits of the two others later on.

What do you think? any other suggestions?

Input – Transformation – Output

I recently came across a very interesting – as well as easy to read – book from Alan Knox (2002) and wanted to tell you about it. I haven’t finished reading the book but so far one of my favourite bits has been the view taken in describing adult education provider and program. According to the author ‘thinking of your adult and continuing education provider and program as a system helps connect useful ideas (…) (p3).

What is so interesting in that statement? System obviously! That reminded me my MBA program when we talked about ‘Operations Management’, which is concerned with managing effectively the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labour and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services).

Any system can be divided into a set of input-transformation-output blocks. These are usually represented as in figure 1.

Figure 1 Input-transformation-output blocks

Source: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=216864 (accessed on 14/03/10)

When the concept system is applied to any education provider and program, figure1 now includes the following elements.

Figure 2  Input – Transformation – Output

 

Source: http://rijeka.intereduc.ch/education/input-transformation-output  (accessed on 14/03/10)

Knox (2002) further adds ‘systematically, your agency program attracts participants, instructors, money, facilities, equipment, materials, and staff. These ingredients (inputs) interact to enable the adult and continuing education program to function (process) and produce the benefits for participants, other people associated with them, society in general, and your provider agency’.  

 Figure 3: Inside view of the transformation process

and I almost forgot ... Knox, A.B., (2000) Evaluation for Continuing Education - A comprehensive book Jossey-Bass
ISBN 0787961434