EPE Week: Valerie Williams on Evaluating Environmental Education Programs

1 Comment / Environmental Program Evaluation, Prek-12 Educational Evaluation / April 15, 2012

My name is Valerie Williams and I am a Program Evaluator at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). One of the programs I work with is Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), a worldwide, K-12 environmental science and education program. Many environmental education programs struggle with the question of whether environmental …

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EPE Week: Anna Williams on The False Dichotomy Between “Environmental” and “Social”

4 Comments / Environmental Program Evaluation / April 15, 2012

Hi. I am Anna Williams, a Senior Associate at Ross & Associates Environmental Consulting in Seattle, Washington. I have devoted the past 20 years to solving complex environmental-social issues. I use the words “environmental-social” here intentionally: Fundamentally both “environmental” and “social” challenges – and their solutions – are the same. An independent evaluation I conducted …

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EPE Week: Tina Phillips on Developing Validated Scales

Leave a Comment / Environmental Program Evaluation, Quantitative Methods: Theory and Design / April 15, 2012

Hello! My name is Tina Phillips and I am the evaluation program manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I lead an NSF-funded project called DEVISE (Developing, Validating and Implementing Situated Evaluations), which is aimed at providing practitioners and evaluators with tools to assess individual learning outcomes from citizen science, or public participation in scientific …

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EPE Week: Yvonne Watson on Mission Possible: Evaluation Capacity Building at EPA

Leave a Comment / Environmental Program Evaluation, Evaluation Managers and Supervisors, Organizational Learning and Evaluation Capacity Building / April 15, 2012

Hi everyone! I’m Yvonne M. Watson, a Program Analyst in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Evaluation Support Division (ESD). As chair of the American Evaluation Association’s Environmental Program Evaluation Topical Interest Group, I invite you to learn more about evaluation and environmental issues this week. Evaluation units across the federal government vary in …

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Susan Kistler on AEA Setting Environmental Issues as a Priority and the Environmental Evaluators Network Forum Unconference

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / April 17, 2012

I am Susan Kistler, the American Evaluation Association’s Executive Director and aea365 regular Saturday contributor. Did you know that April 22 is Earth Day and that all this week we’ll be celebrating Earth Week on aea365 with our colleagues in the Environmental Program Evaluation Topical Interest Group? What is particular exciting is that this year …

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NA Week: Roger Kaufman on Needs Assessment

Leave a Comment / Needs Assessment / March 24, 2012

For the past five decades Roger Kaufman (RK) has been a leader in the field of needs assessment – contributing 40 books and 200+ articles, and consulting with organizations around the world. He is a professor emeritus from Florida State University and a Distinguished Research Professor, Sonora (Mexico) Institute of Technology. For aea365, Dr. Kaufman …

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NA Week: Ryan Watkins on Overcoming Five Obstacles to a Successful Needs Assessment

Leave a Comment / Needs Assessment / April 6, 2012

I’m Ryan Watkins and I am an associate professor at George Washington University.  Among other things, I maintain the needs assessment website www.gapsinresults.com – which collects many needs assessment resources for you.  I’m writing today about five needs assessment obstacles and tips to overcome them.  Lessons Learned:  1st Obstacle: “We need …” Unfortunately, needs assessment …

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NA Week: Sue Hamann on Including Intended Service Recipients in Needs Assessment and Program Planning

Leave a Comment / Needs Assessment / March 24, 2012

Hello, my name is Sue Hamann, and I work at the National Institutes of Health. Today I will share some tips about including intended service recipients in needs assessment and program planning. Lessons Learned: Although leading authorities recommend the inclusion of intended service recipients, that is, those persons who have a need to be met …

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NA Week: Maurya West Meiers on Planning and Managing Your Needs Assessment

Leave a Comment / Needs Assessment / March 24, 2012

My name is Maurya West Meiers and I work at the World Bank as an Evaluation Officer. I’m writing to share information from our book on planning for and managing your needs assessment. Lessons Learned – Use checklists: Don’t underestimate the power and usefulness of checklists. Airline pilots are required to use them. Many surgeons …

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NA Week: James Altschuld on Lessons Learned: Use the 3 Phase Model

1 Comment / Needs Assessment / April 6, 2012

I’m James Altschuld, Professor Emeritus of Ohio State University. So you have to conduct a needs assessment! You are an evaluator in an organization or expert consultant, you know what to do. You have a sense of what needs assessment is but you really haven’t been involved in one before and now you are concerned. …

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