Program Evaluation and Its Usefulness Essay Example

Program Evaluation and Its Usefulness Essay Program evaluation is a tool used for evaluating and assessing a program in place. This paper will describe program evaluation and how it can be useful for an organization wishing to determine the efficiency, effectiveness, and the impact of a program. Five of the most common program evaluation models will be introduced. A number of different models are used by those who evaluate programs. This paper will describe, in detail, the success case method for evaluations. Program Evaluation and Its Usefulness Program evaluation is a process of assessing whether a program is efficient, effective, and has an impact on its intended users (Posavac and Carey, 2007). Program evaluation occurs in an organized setting and is a collection of methods, skills, and sensitivities used to determine whether a need is met and whether or not the objectives or goals of the program are sufficiently delivered and achieved. Evaluation looks at program and project objectives and asks whether they have been achieved, judges the worth of ongoing programs, decides upon the usefulness of new program or projects, and so forth† (Boulmetis and Dutwin, 2005, p. 3). Another way to look at program evaluation is to assess the current state of a program and identify any discrepancies of the current state and what the intended state is supposed to be. Program evaluations can be useful to an organization in several ways. We will write a custom essay sample on Program Evaluation and Its Usefulness specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Program Evaluation and Its Usefulness specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Program Evaluation and Its Usefulness specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Program evaluations can contribute to quality services by providing feedback. Formative evaluations, which are designed to help form the programs themselves, provide feedback that can be crucial to the success of an organization (Posavac and Carey, 2007). Also, evaluations can help an organization decide whether a program should be started or not and choose between different program options (Posavac and Carey, 2007). Through data collection, evaluation questions, and data analysis an organization can decide on the effective of a new or ongoing program. Program evaluations can verify that resources would be devoted to meeting unmet needs, verify that implemented programs do provide services, examine the outcome of programs, provide information to maintain and improve quality, and watch for unplanned side effects. Five Most Common Types of Program Evaluation Models The five most common types of program evaluations are ones that assess the program’s efficiency, assess the program’s design and theory, assess the program’s impact on the community or end user, assess the program’s process or implementation, and assess the need for the program. Success Case Model for Evaluation According to Brinkerhoff (1983), success case evaluation seeks qualitative information about a few subjects rather than seeking thinner, quantifiable data about many subjects. The success case model derives information from those participants who have benefited from the program according to the goals and objectives the program intends to have. This feedback may be helpful to others who have not benefitted as well from the program. Success cases may be studies briefly through short interviews with a few trainees or through more elaborate approaches, such as work-sample analysis, records analysis and observation† (Brinkerhoff, 1983, para. 9). Some uses of the success case method are illustrating that the program has a positive impact, modifying and strengthening the program being evaluated, and building data collection methods to determine the extent of the program’s impact (Brinkerhoff, 1983). Evaluation questions often associated with th e success case model ask: How has the program been used? What benefits are results of the program? What problems occurred during or because of the program? Conclusion Program evaluation is necessary to accurately examine a program’s efficiency, effectiveness, or impact of the particular program through the means evaluation questions, data collection, and data analysis. These types of evaluations can provide useful feedback to organizations to examine the outcomes of a program, verify that the goals and objectives of a program are met, provide information to choose between different programs, provide information to improve quality of a program, and watch for unplanned side effects. The five most common evaluation models address the need for a program, the efficiency of a program, the impact of a program, the theory of a program, and the implementation of a program. The success case model of evaluation seeks information on a select group of participants who have experienced success from the program. Feedback from the program can help to modify or strengthen the program, help others who have yet to benefit from the program, and determine the impact of the program on its participants. References Brinkerhoff, R. O. (August 1983). The success case: a low-cost, high-yield evaluation. Training and Development Journal. Retrieved December 6, 2010, from www. ebscohost. com. Boulmetis, J. amp; Dutwin, P. (2005). The ABCs of evaluation: Timeless techniques for program and project managers. (2nd ed. ). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/John Wiley amp; Sons. Posavac, E. , amp; Carey, R. (2007). Program evaluation: Methods and case studies. (7th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Vandalism and how it is a problem today.

Vandalism and how it is a problem today. Our Definition Of Vandalism Vs.Prior to beginning our research of vandalism we began discussing our own definition of vandalism and what it meant to us. The following is what we came up with for our own description of vandalism. Vandalism is the act in which one purposefully commits an act in which they either destroy, trash, wreck, ruin, or render unusable a possession in which they are not the rifle owner of. This would also consist of acts such as graffiti. Now let's see our definition compared to that of other legitimate sources.Dictionary.com - Willful or malicious destruction of public or private property.Old Dictionary - intentional destruction or damage to propertyWebster's Dictionary - Destruction or spoiling of what should be preserved.If you compare our explanation of the word vandalism to these other you can see the relation and how these are nearly the same meanings in different terminology.Graffiti in Bucharest, July 2007.To achieve the most random of results from our e xamination we handed out exactly forty-eight surveys. We did this so that there were twelve per grade and precisely twenty-four male and an equal amount of females receiving our questionnaire.An additional unanticipated piece of information that we came across was the fact that just 10% of the people felt some sort of regret or remorse for their wrong doings. This is somewhat shocking taking into consideration that we found 28% have admitted to being caught. This means that some people still aren't bothered by the actuality that they have been caught and this isn't preventing them from committing such crimes again. This would lead one to believe that people aren't taking the punishments seriously enough, which is most likely for the reason that they aren't severe enough. If the penalty for vandalizing were more harsh perhaps people...

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Reflection - Essay Example The Gibbs model of reflection divides the process into six stages, namely, the Description phase, where the event or topic is discussed; the feelings phase, where one’s thoughts and feelings about what happened are described; the Evaluation phase, where the positive and negative aspects, the pluses and minuses, good and bad aspects, of the experience or event are discussed; the Analysis phase, where one tries to piece together what the underlying dynamics and causes of the event or situation are, where one tries to grasp the essence of the event; the Conclusion phase, where one wraps up the preceding phases and tries to determine other courses of action that could have been pursued; and the Action Plan phase, where one draws up contingencies and plans of actions in the event of the reoccurrence of the incident or situation (The University of Northampton n.d.; La Trobe University 2011; Education Drop-In Centre 2012). Medication error or drug error is defined as any mistake or e rror in the administering a drug or medication, owing to a number of events, including mistakes in the way the drug was routed when administered, mistakes in the dosage administered, lapses in the prescription and administration of drugs for medical conditions, making use of expired medication, mistimed administration of the medication, and mistakes of ignorance arising out of not knowing what the adverse drug reactions are and what the adverse reactions are when co-administering or mixing different kinds of drugs or medications (Elsevier 2009; US Food and Drug Administration 2013; Hahn 2007; CTVNews.ca Staff 2013). The literature meanwhile traces the causes of medication errors to a number of factors, including that the handwriting in medical prescriptions are poor and its contents cannot be determined with certainty at the time of the reading; mistakes in choosing among drugs that have similar naming; and inadequate data relating to patient histories, sensitivities to certain medi cations, and any allergic reactions to any and all considered medications (Elsevier 2009). The emphasis in the discussions on medication errors is that they can be prevented, and the event itself has led to the misuse of medication or and the harming of the patient who took the medication. Medication error too covers the time when any and all medication is being handled not just by the medical practitioner, but also by the patient taking the medication itself, as well as the general consumer who has access to the medication. Medication error events, moreover, are tied to systems and procedures as well as the products of health care; the communication of the order; the labeling and packaging of the drug; the distributing, dispensing and compounding of a drug product; educating the patient about the drug; and the use and monitoring of the use of the drug by the patient. In all of these aspects there are possibilities for the occurrence or commission of drug error acts on the part of t he involved parties, as discussed above (US Food and Drug Administration 2013). Moreover, the literature notes that there are different rates of medication errors and adverse events associated with different classes and types of drugs, with some drugs, such as insulin and morphine, associated with higher rates of medication errors in their various aspects, including in their administration and in certain high-risk contexts, such as in acute care settings. The literature note