Courses

»»     A 3 credit hour graduate level course designed to develop skills in the fundamentals of evaluation, measurement, and research. The course will introduce participants to many of the essential components necessary to carry out and evaluate social science research. Topics include philosophy of science, finding and formulating research problems and questions, literature reviews and searches, basic concepts in measurement, sampling, ethical treatment of human subjects and qualitative and quantitative research methods and designs, and program evaluation. During the course, each participant is expected to prepare a research proposal/literature review.

»»     The course will provide a comprehensive review of relevant theoretical and methodological knowledge related to program evaluation. Also the course will focus on specific skills that are relevant and often used in conducting program evaluations. Group work, weekly written assignments, and course projects will provide opportunities to apply knowledge and skills. The course will start with a broad look at what evaluation is and how it is applied. Following this birds' eye view of the field, we will hone in and focus on specific evaluation approaches and models relevant to program evaluation.

»»     This is a 3 credit hour graduate level class. This course is a practicum, which means that students learn by doing or practicing. The purpose of the course is to prepare graduate students to conduct evaluations independently. It is expected that course participants will learn about and engage in all components or aspects of program evaluations, including proposal writing, budgeting, management information systems, staffing, preparing contracts, project management, instrument development, data collection, data entry, data analysis, technical report writing, and making contributions to the profession by publishing or presenting findings or lessons learned from their experience.