Evaluation

Oh evaluation. This is a term near and dear to my heart at this point in my life as I will be doing a program evaluation for my thesis! I found this weeks lecture to be particularly interesting obviously because of my thesis, but also because it is so important. Programs and interventions are great tools for helping people and organizations create real change, but as I think Manpreet pointed out, they are successful in accomplishing this goal if they are in fact effective programs. I found reviewing the different types of evaluation (process, impact, and outcome) to be helpful in understanding evaluation in a systematic lens as well. I am excited to use some of these tools when I begin my research because while I helped design the health program at the school where I teach and I think it is fantastic (I have to gloat a little), I won't really know it's impact until I do the impact evaluation. Likewise, I won't know what worked well, what did not work at all, and how I could recommend improvements, unless I do the evaluation.