Artifact 5

ETR531: Program Evaluation in Education

Introduction and Reflection

Evaluation of Online Professional Development (OPD) program

at Norther Illinois University (NIU)

The presented artifact above was the final project of the course ETR531 I took in fall 2016.

This course is designed to introduces students to methods of evaluating educational programs using

different techniques and models. In this course, I have learned how to evaluate educational

programs using an appropriate approach. Specifically, I have learned the necessary concepts, skills

and steps to conduct program evaluation such as needs assessment.

One of the course requirements was to write an evaluation proposal. The presented artifact

above is a program evaluation that I have designed to fulfill the requirements of this course.

Evaluation of Online Professional Development (OPD) program at Norther Illinois University

(NIU) was the title of this proposal. The aim of this proposal was to is to evaluate the overall

effectiveness of the online professional development (OPD) that prepare faculty to teach online at

Northern Illinois University. The proposed evaluation model is Guskeys (2000) model which

consists of five levels of evaluating (1) reactions (satisfaction with the training), (2) learning (gains

in knowledge, attitudes, or skills demonstrable in training), (3) organization support (institutional

commitment), (4) transfer (behavior change), and (5) results (impact).

Based on Guskeys Model, the following evaluation questions were designed to guide this

evaluation:

What are instructors feelings about the OPD materials, content, and delivery of training?
What knowledge and skills did participants gain from the training?
Did the university support the training program?
 Do instructors change their instructional practices based on what was learned at the
OPD?
Did the OPD impact instructors online teaching?

As proposed in this artifact, quantitative and qualitative data will be collected via semi-

structured interview, questionnaire and document view. The collected data will be analyzed to

answer the evaluation questions. The evaluator will use Quality Matter (QM) rubric to evaluate

the OPD to determine if the program meets the standard.

Evidence of Mastery of Objectives 2 and 8.

Objective 2: Design and select appropriate assessment or evaluation tools for a given

educational problem.

As a result of taking this course, I was able to select an appropriate evaluation model that best

fits with the nature of OPD program. The presented artifact above shows my ability to design and

select methods to collect the required data and choose an appropriate benchmark for evaluation.

For these reasons, this objective is met.

Objective 8: engage in research-related activities in diverse settings

One of my research interests is online professional development (OPD). Designing this

program evaluation proposal has given me the opportunity to interact with stakeholders of OPD at

Northern Illinois University. I also had the chance to meet different people in different positions

at OPD center during the process of needs assessment. Thus, this objective is met.