505 chapter summaries

7/30/2019 505 Chapter Summaries

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Jamie Doiron

EDTECH 505

Chapter and Reading Summaries

Chapter 1Chapter 1 gave me an overview of what an evaluation is and discussed the main parts:

objectives, data and analysis. Of those three parts, it became clear to me that the objectives are

far and away the most important part of any evaluation. Without a clear objective, how can you

know how to structure all of the other components of an evaluation?

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 discussed the reasons to perform an evaluation, the benefits and drawbacks of doing

one, and the factors that influence the success of the evaluation. I think it is crucial that the

reason for doing an evaluation is well-defined and understood by stakeholders. If the reasonbehind an evaluation is known, it can help shape the evaluations objectives.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 covers the evaluation program cycle, the phases of the evaluation, and the types of

monitoring activities that are ongoing during an evaluation. This chapter really highlighted the

differences between formative and summative evaluation for me. I understood what they were in

a classroom context, but I did not understand how they could be applied to an evaluation before

reading this chapter. The formative evaluation serves as a checkpoint or even baseline analysis

and the summative evaluation occurs near the end of the evaluation period to determine if the

objectives were met.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 discussed the Evaluators Program Description, which is a document created by the

evaluator as a starting point for discussing the program to be evaluated with the appropriate

stakeholders. It can help build rapport with the individuals involved, which is a crucial step in the

evaluation process because having a working relationship with stakeholders makes the entire

process run more smoothly.

Chapter 5

The most important thing I gained from chapter 5 was the different models for evaluation:

discrepancy, goal free, transaction, and decision making. By reading about the different types, I

was able to discern that my evaluation project is a discrepancy model because I will be

comparing a product to the needs of the end users


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Chapter 6

Chapter 6 was partly a review for me. I understood the differences between qualitative and

quantitative data, but I did not know about all of the different levels of data: nominal, ordinal,

interval, and ratio. I dont anticipate using this for my evaluation project because it is unlikely that I

will be doing a whole lot with different data types, but it is good information to have nonetheless.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 was another chapter about data, but this time it discussed data manipulation and

analysis. It talked about the differences between mean, median and mode, which took me back

to my seventh grade math class. It was a great refresher for me. Typically when I manipulate

data it is in a database using SQL, so understanding that there are ways to mathematically

manipulate and analyze data was a great reminder.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 discussed the difference between evaluation and research. I still am fuzzy on what

research is, but I definitely understand what evaluation is and that my project is an evaluation

project, not a research project. Im frankly not sure why they even included this chapter in the

book, it seems a little out of place. It is unlikely that someone doing a research project would

purchase this book and want to read about research projects when they could get any one of a

number of books more focused on the subject.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 was invaluable now that my evaluation project is coming up soon. I was so happy to

see the different components of the evaluation report laid out and explained in more detail. This

has put my mind at ease and I feel more ready than ever to finalize it and submit it for grading.

Internet Readings

I am going to focus my internet readings summary on the week 10 readings regarding sampling:

http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/Samplingguide.pdf

http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/res_methd/sampling/sa

mpling_01.html%20

The reason for this is that I had literally zero experience with sampling prior to this course andthese readings were the newest for me as the content was almostly 100% things I had never

encountered before.

What I loved about these readings was that they took what, to me, is a really scary and unknown

concept, and made it understandable. The course text explained what sampling was, but it did

not sink in with me the first time I read it. Both of the documents that I linked above covered more
http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wadsworth.com%2Fpsychology_d%2Ftemplates%2Fstudent_resources%2Fworkshops%2Fres_methd%2Fsampling%2Fsampling_01.html%2520&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHnBFl3RcsduYtEoy1ATkqXYhhktghttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wadsworth.com%2Fpsychology_d%2Ftemplates%2Fstudent_resources%2Fworkshops%2Fres_methd%2Fsampling%2Fsampling_01.html%2520&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHnBFl3RcsduYtEoy1ATkqXYhhktghttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nao.org.uk%2Fpublications%2FSamplingguide.pdf&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNEWxO2z3K9H_Uy5sqxNVVNiDQMBnQ


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or less the same topic, but in different ways. I walked away from the readings feeling like I could

explain to someone who knew nothing about sampling what the differences were. It also left me

with a lot of questions. I wondered what sampling methods were used for surveys that I saw on

TV. Why did they never disclose how they sampled? Why is the margin of error seemingly

always +/- 3%? How do they come up with that number anyway? The readings answered many

questions I had about sampling and left me curious about a lot of things that I encounter on aneveryday basis.

505 chapter summaries

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