CMM TIG Week: Online Activity Logs: Low Cost and High Impact for Multisite Evaluations by Jonathan Margolin
My name is Jonathan Margolin, and I am a senior researcher in the Education Program at American Institutes for Research, where I work primarily in the State and Local Evaluation Center. One common challenge when evaluating the implementation of educational programs is to understand how the program is interpreted and adapted by teachers and schools. This issue is particularly challenging when the program is being implemented in dozens of sites across the country, where it is often not feasible to conduct in depth case studies or collect other implementation data. One low cost and highly efficient approach to capturing data on implementation is to provide teachers with online logs with which to record classroom activities. We used this approach in our recent evaluation of The CryptoClub, an informal program involving cryptography and mathematics (more information about the program is available here).