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.

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between exercise and type 2 Diabetes among the pregnant women in the aboriginal population of Saskatchewan. This is a relatively recent study in that it took place in 2003. The prenatal exercise program was an off shoot of a larger study into prenatal gestational diabetes mellitus.(GDM) The initial study was restricted to pregnant aboriginal women with previous GDM.

Interested parties

Parties that have a vested interest in the study outcome include the funding agency National Health Research and Development Program. The Aboriginal community at large and the participants in the study will also have an interest in the outcome. While not identified as a party to the study the Saskatoon district health region should be very interested in the possible benefits to the general health of this group.

Process

The exercise program was developed to accommodate the expectant mothers in the study group. The possible study participants were surveyed to ascertain what features would be important to the target group of women. The location chosen was centrally located. The study included a cultural component that was considered in the development of the exercise program. The study was voluntary and free of charge and open to all pregnant aboriginal women in the city. They were required to have a medical release that that showed they were medically fit to participate. The three pages that were presented go into great detail on the mechanics of the study but omits any mention of results.

Recommendations

This study has identified a serious issue that needs to be pursued. However it fails to explain the continued need in terms of the study results.

This opportunity to advance physical fitness and lifelong learning should continue as a community health program.

This study included a cultural and social component that allowed the participants to develop a support network.

Conclusion

This study as it was seems to be missing several elements. There are no results of the initial study that explain the need to broaden the scope. There needs to be some published results of this study in order to determine if the program is beneficial to the participants. This study needs to justify the original funding and it has not done so with the information that was provided. The addition of the exercise class is not a part of the original study but does not seem to take anything away from it. The additional participants probably enhanced the experience for the original study participants.

References

Klomp, H., Dyck, R., and Sheppard, S. (2003). Description and evaluation of a prenatal exercise program for urban Aboriginal women. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 27: 231–238.

Review of

Results of the evaluation of a School-Based For The Prevention Of Substance use Among Adolescents

            This Program evaluation is a results based evaluation of the study. The Program named EU-DAP stands for European Drug Addiction Prevention Trial . The purpose of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the ongoing program. The study was funded by the European Commission within the Community Public Health programme in 2002. This is a school based program that is used to reduce drug abuse in school aged children. This evaluation relies solely on statistical results as the evidence of meeting program goals and objectives.

            The premise of this study is that smoking, alcohol and drugs all share a common addition mechanism. Treating one addition or substitution of different addicting substances defeats the purpose. This study treats the age group early adolescents for addictive practices instead of treating one substance abuse at a time. The study included data from seven countries, nine regional centres,143 schools and involved a sample that included over 7000 students as participants. This is a very large experimental study to manage. 

            This program was evaluated using an Outcome Based Evaluation Method. The main objective of the study was to break the cycle of addictive behaviors that are prevalent in the study group. The artifact produced is 28 pages long and does an adequate job of covering the material contained in the study. This Method of Program evaluation is appropriate for this study the end result is the most important goal in this instance. The researchers acknowledge several issues with the results Such as the cluster effect when class and social position may skew the result in homogeneous areas. The process was not what the program sponsor were interested in. How you get to the end result is minor although it was a monumental task. This process is as open as the studies research team can make it. This is a necessity as the data is being collected from schools and about children.

            There are 7 pages of charts and tables. These are necessary to help understand the results of such a massive study. The tables break down the results into useable bits of information. The statistics are impressive but alone do not provide evidence of support or failure of the premise.

            500 words is not enough to adequately review this evaluation this is a very in-depth study with an overabundance of experimental evidence. This evaluation does an excellent job of summarizing the study. The material is clear and well written with a good understanding of the results and the method used. According to the summary there is some evidence that the program works with alcohol and cannabis. The study does not present conclusive evidence of the original thesis. There is enough evidence from similar studies in the United States and the preliminary results on this study to continue with the longer term portion of this study.

             This Program Evaluation is available to the public on line at http://www.eudap.net/pdf/FinalReport2.pdf

References

http://www.eudap.net/pdf/FinalReport2.pdf retrieved 12/1/2012