June 2008 Archives

During the past few years, I've had an amazing experience conducting evaluations with an academic support group on the Brigham Young University (BYU) campus. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) strives to “improve student learning in the context of the Aims of a BYU Education. The center accomplishes this goal by assisting BYU faculty, instructors, and administrators to -

• refine effective program- and course-level learning outcomes,
• design learning experiences to achieve desired outcomes,
• enhance the quality of learning experiences through technology integration,
• evaluate the effectiveness of learning experiences, and
• advance knowledge of effective learning and teaching.”

The evaluation field in general loves to debate and discuss the important issues surrounding evaluation. One longstanding topic (if there is anything more longstanding than the quantitative/qualitative debate :) is the difference between evaluation and research.

There are many opinions, and there probably is no right or wrong answer, but since this is my blog, I get to state my opinions and experiences to my heart's content. :)

As I understand it, both research and evaluation ask what is. Then research asks why, which indicates a theoretical basis, whereas evaluation asks what should be, which makes reference to the standards and criteria of evaluations.