Think of an evaluation project that you have been a part of in the past.  What benefits did you personally receive by being part of the evaluation?

– Two in-text citations required 

– Follow UC Handbook 

– Two Scholarly reference

• One Peer Reply

– Be thoughtful/analytical

Please include at least 3 paragraphs and respond to 2 peers.

Peer reply needed 

I have been a project manager for a media development initiative at the company I work for.  The projects were typically enacted by me and others on the team and our work often experienced a turnover with little analysis of performance.  Towards the end of last year, we decided to perform a brief evaluation of our project to understand what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and how we can improve.  I never perceived this as an evaluation but looking back it appears to fit the parameters of the term “evaluation.”  Brun (2014) references that evaluations are helpful for maintaining documentation.  That is true for this circumstance because we will be able to review last year’s evaluation and observe what we have improved on or where our performance is declining.

           The documentation was necessary to provide references for current performance but many other milestones were reached from this evaluation.  The first accomplishment was to initiate a conversation among project managers and enact an internally driven evaluation (Brun, 2014, pg. 122).  This was challenging for our team because we forced ourselves to ask more meaningful questions than, “how is it going?”  We wanted to dissect the projects and ask more detailed questions.  Most of these questions were formed from a SWOT analysis that we performed in our evaluation.  A SWOT analysis indicates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a specific program or organization (Dyson, 2004).  Another perceived benefit of the evaluation was to receive updates and transparency on all of the changes that may have been lost in the hustle and bustle of moving from one project to another.  Each project manager was able to share details about their projects in a time and space set aside for solely discussing project evaluation.

           Our evaluation did appear successful in an initial review of the project but many improvements can be made.  Upon reviewing other evaluation practices through a literature review, I have acknowledged that a survey can pose as a helpful tool in developing a record of annual performance.  I obtained an article that utilizes a program evaluation from the Medical Library Association (MLA).  This association used a survey to record an evaluation from one hundred and ninety-eight participants (Boden, Ascher, & Eldredge, 2018).  Only eighty responses were recorded but the feedback provided the evaluators with some data to improve their programs (Boden, Ascher, & Eldredge, 2018).  Our team will be much smaller than MLA’s so accountability for completing the survey will be more significant.  I find that if the appropriate questions are posed and participants are able to submit personal comments reflecting on the program then we can improve our evaluation process.

References

Boden, C., Ascher, M., & Eldredge, J. 2018. “Learning While Doing: Program Evaluation of the Medical Library Association Systematic Review Project.”  Journal of the Medical Library Association.  

Brun, C. 2014.  A Practical Guide to Evaluation (2nd Ed).  Lyceum Books: Chicago.

Dyson, R. 2002.  “Strategic Development and SWOT Analysis at the University of Warwick.”  European Journal of Operational Research.  Vol. 152, pgs. 631-640

Peer reply 2

Performance Evaluations- Athens State University College of Education

For the past five years, I have served as Director of Clinical Experiences for a College of Education. In this role, Performance evaluations helped our College to plan future strategies and set up performance targets of employees to achieve the final target of the entire organizations. I had my field experience students, interns, and cooperating teachers all conduct performance evaluations each term. We used Live Text for all of our evaluations. This process allowed my department to better our administration process each semester. The work performed or performance can be evaluated for the future guidance and improvement. However, the marks of the student tell the teacher’s performance, but it needs an evaluation in a systematic way. If deficiency is visible in the work of a teacher, they should be given time to improve or the teacher can improve himself or herself. Evaluation is also desirable in case of teachers’ promotion in society (Azma, 2010).

These evaluations would be on themselves and the teachers they were assigned to. In addition, we gave the teachers the opportunity to give feedback on the teacher candidate. The importance of self-evaluation is that it allows you to further your own learning journey and career by allowing you to reflect on your own performance from an outside perspective, enabling you to really learn what your strengths and weaknesses are. This means you will be able to see what points you have that you can further cultivate and grow, and which points within you need further attention. This will allow you to further your career and stop you from being stuck in a rut. Self-evaluation is an important tool to help you stay on track with your learning goals, as well as adapt towards different paths if necessary. Being able to self evaluate will also help you in future, as most organizations now use processes of self-evaluation (Anderson, 1978). This means that being able to recognize the importance of self-evaluation and being able to implement these steps is a very marketable skill that you can use to sell yourself to an organization once you start your career. 

Although efforts to move quickly in designing and implementing more effective teacher evaluation systems are laudable, we need to acknowledge a crucial issue that measuring teachers and developing teachers are different purposes with different implications. An evaluation system designed primarily for measurement will look quite different from a system designed primarily for development.

Reference:

S. B Anderson and S. Ball, The Profession and Practice of Program Evaluation (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1978).

Azma, F. (2010). Qualitative Indicators for the evaluation of universities performance. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 2; 5408-5411.