Designing and implementing a project evaluation plan

Engineering faculty members involved in education research and development efforts are being asked to provide evidence that their projects are effective and successful. This workshop provides an introduction to and a framework for designing and implementing an evaluation plan to assess these efforts. Through a set of interactive activities, participants will explore a series of issues that emphasize (1) the development of guiding questions; (2) the alignment of the evaluation to the project goals and objectives; (3) the selection of methods and the need for systematic data collection, analysis, and interpretation; and (4) the need to anticipate and address alternative hypotheses and interpretations of the results. With this background, each participant will design an evaluation plan for a project of his or her choice, submit the plan for critique by a subset of participants, and provide and receive constructive feedback. At the end of the workshop, participants should be able to work with an evaluator to develop and carry out an effective evaluation of an engineering education project.