Initial and Final Submission: No changes made
Reflective Letter
I gained a greater appreciation of program evaluation through this semester. While the coursework was challenging, it taught me to utilize critical thinking skills and how to conduct a thorough program evaluation for success. Program evaluations are complex and require criteria needed to be met for program validity.
The learning for the course is demonstrated in the e-portfolio assignment. I appreciate the portfolio encompassing the entire steps of the program evaluation into a central location. Another area I demonstrated learning in the course was in my research plan. The data collection methods and identifying stakeholders were important in how to conduct an accurate evaluation. I also identified the type of evaluation (summative) as well as the qualitative research methods.
Ethical issues as well as role conflicts were specific components to the program evaluation that I appreciated learning. Ethical issues arise anywhere; however, I found it helpful to know how to overcome them in a program evaluation. Integrity and honesty is key to ensure that the program evaluation is valid. Errors in the research performed can harm the program’s outcome and evaluation. I learned it’s imperative to recognize and overcome role conflicts early in the program evaluation. Communication is a key component in the evaluation. When you set expectations and communicate with stakeholders from the beginning, the less conflict will arise.
The mind map was a part of the program evaluation I enjoyed. I enjoy brainstorming and finding important data for evaluations. The mind map allows you to brainstorm the ideas and then compartmentalize the data into categories. It helped me keep all information organized and assigned to the specific category. This was one area I felt I was most successful in. Another area I felt was successful was the evaluation questions. I thought about what I would like to know as well as what others find important in finding out about a program. From that standpoint, I was able to create the questions needed for the evaluation.
In areas of improvement, the findings for the program evaluation could have been better. The evaluation was specific and throughout the evaluation I collected more data than I needed. With the data that wasn’t specific for the evaluation, I found myself wanting to continue researching different topics for a different evaluation. I wasn’t sure if the evaluation questions I came up with were what I wanted to use. At that point, I was too far into my research and findings that I couldn’t restart the evaluation based on another set of questions.
I see this course intersecting in my future career because I will be attending GMU for my master’s in special education. My goal is to become a BCBA specialist with children. In those areas, I will take the knowledge I learned and be able to apply it to programs that are implemented in this field. I have the knowledge to apply concepts learned in this course to the career field I am going into.