Assignment 3

Edcur 809

Glenn Moody

Evaluation Assessment

Engage Stakeholders

Who should be involved in this study? The students in the class are the focus of the study. The staff and contracted service providers also have an interest in the study and need to be involved. The program manager is instrumental in leading the focus of the program evaluation.

Focus

The focus of the evaluation is how are the students meeting with success?

The purpose of the evaluation is to determine if a significant number of students are attaining their goal of meaningful employment at the end of the class and if there are prospects for future growth opportunities.

The results if the Evaluation will be provided to the Program manager for comments before they are provided to the students and staff of the program. The results will also become the basis for Glenn Moody’s masters thesis. The students will be provided with the opportunity to comment on the document and recommendations.

The following questions will be answered by the evaluation.

1. Is this a cost effective method of training workers for entry level trades jobs?
2. Are the skills appropriate for new graduates to gain employment?
3. Do the students’ progress to higher skilled jobs?
4. Can the outcome be improved?

Data Collection

Student demographic information will tell us what skills the students have to start with.

Employers being surveyed as to employment prospects before the class starts will help answer whether or not the students have a reasonable chance at success. They will also be questioned as to what skills enhance the employ-ability of the students.

Information will be collected in the form of interviews with staff and potential employers. Students will be surveyed with an on line survey. This along with existing information and records, like class graduation results and demographic information from previous graduating classes will be the bulk of the data used. The students will also be contacted after a follow up survey. The will comprise the data to be used in the program evaluation.

All information will be stored in a secure electronic file. After use in this evaluation paper data will be scanned and saved electronically. The originals will be destroyed if not needed.

Interviews will be recorded and transcribed as well as the interviewers notes.

The data collected from the students will be collected during the course except for the follow up survey. This should make the students more secure in their position and comfortable enough to take part in the study.

Demographic data and interviews with the staff will take place at the beginning of the class that is being evaluated. After the class roster is set and the time frame for the class is finalized.

This process will not use sampling methods. The number of participants is relatively small so all interested parties will be invited to participate. A pilot test of the student survey will take place before the class starts and will use 2 volunteers from an already running class of students.

The data collected will be used in a results based program evaluation. The process is also an important part of the program evaluation. The successes of the program and the path to success are what interests us in this evaluation. Finding and maintain meaningful work in the area of training or a related area will constitute a success. This along with the guideline set out by the funding agency.

Analyze and interpret data.

The data will be compared to a standard to be developed in conjunction with the program managers and the program funding guide lines. This program evaluation will Start with a qualitative comparison of the data collected. The qualitative results will compare the enjoyability of the students at the start of the class to the results at the end of the class. This will comprise the main body of evidence collected from survey results. Quantitative results facts will be collected from the budget numbers and student demographic data. This information will help determine the cost effectiveness of this type of program.

Sharing Results

The information will be shared with the program manager and the students that participated if they wish to review the recommendations. The document will be provided to outside agencies and researchers at the discretion of the program manager.

Management issues

The participants will be informed as to how the information will be used, who will have access to the data and who it can be used. All participants will sign an informed consent form. Students may withdraw consent at any time during the study.

The time-line for the study is approximately 6 months from the start of the class that is involved to the final paper being distributed. The course is eight to ten weeks long. The follow up interview will extend the data collection thirty days beyond the end of the course. Then that will allow three months to produce the final report and recommendations.