Evaluation principles, models, and procedures used in developing and analyzing agricultural, vocational, technical, and extension education programs; role of comprehensive evaluation in needs assessments, program planning, program implementation, and the marketing of outcomes to major stake-holders; designs for evaluating agricultural and extension programs. Evaluation logic model is presented to identify and describe program inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes.
Increasingly, over the past few decades, agriculture, extension, and community development educational programs have been monitored by funding agencies to evaluate whether programs are being conducted as planned and to what extent target audiences benefit. Due to this increased demand for program evaluation, those who are preparing for professional jobs in agricultural and extension education, youth, families and community development need to acquire program evaluation knowledge and skills to succeed in their jobs.
The objective of this course is to provide knowledge and skills necessary to conduct systematic evaluations in agricultural and extension education, youth, families and community development.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
Instructor: Dr. K. S. U. (Jay) Jayaratne
Office: 214 Ricks Hall
Office Phone: (919) 515-6079
Fax: (919) 513-1965
e-mail: jay_jayaratne@ncsu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-5:00 p.m. by appointment
Mailing Address: 214, Ricks Hall, Department of Agricultural and Extension Education,
Box 7607, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7607
Course Web Site: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee577
Wholey, J. S., Hatry, H. P., Newcomer, K. E. (2004). Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation (2nd edition). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN #0-7879-6713-0
Exams/Tests: There will be two take-home exams:
Students should e-mail each of the completed exams as an attached Word file to the instructor by Friday of the exam week. Both exams are designed to test students’ understanding of evaluation concepts and their application. The format of both exams will be short answer and essay. The midterm exam will be based on the topics covered until February 20 and counts 15% of the course grade. The final exam is a comprehensive test and counts 20% of the course grade.
Weekly Reading Assignments:
Weekly reading assignments are designed to facilitate learning interaction with the course reading materials. You are expected to read assigned materials/chapters of the text book and answer weekly assignments. These assignments are open-ended and multiple choice questions from the reading materials/chapters. Each week’s reading assignment will be posted on the class website as a MS Word document on Monday. Download weekly assignments, complete and e-mail as attachments to (jay_jayaratne@ncsu.edu). Weekly reading assignments are due by 12:00 noon on Monday following the week of the class. They are considered late if they are received more than a week after their due date. For example, the first reading assignment for January 16 class is due on Monday, January 21. It is late if it is submitted later than the following Monday, January 21. You may use any reading material to answer these questions. Weekly reading assignments account for 20% of the course grade.
Assignments: To provide opportunities for application of evaluation skills and methods, students will be completing the following three assignments during the semester.
Program description should be submitted as a Word file. Due on or before February 5.
It is suggested that students use a table format or planning a Program Evaluation Worksheet for developing the evaluation plan. Examples of evaluation plans will be discussed in course. Evaluation Plan is due on or before February 20.
Each group should develop a Power Point presentation of their project. Each group is expected to hand over the term project report on the assigned day of the presentation to the instructor. Each group is expected to distribute the Power Point presentation slides and the project report as a Word document to the class e-mail list.
The following criteria will be used to grade the term project:
Total 200 points equal to 20% of the course grade
Class Participation: This is a graduate level course and students are expected to bring their wealth of knowledge into class discussions. The electronic discussion board in WebCT Vista will be used to have an open dialogue related to program evaluation during the semester. Once you have read the assigned materials, post any questions or comments you have for discussion to the discussion board. I DO NOT run this discussion - you do! You are responsible for asking questions, for answering others' questions, for generating topics, and for ensuring that the discussion remains interesting, learning focused and collegial. Please have your discussion for the week completed by Friday evening. You should post at least one reply to another participant (except week 1) within one week. Class participation accounts for 10% of the course grade. Participation is graded on a weekly basis, your participation in the discussion board will be graded using the following scale:
In general, the discussion board participation should serve to enrich the learning experience for everyone. Its primary purpose is for you to share thoughts and ideas with your peers. The instructor will not participate in the discussion, but I do read them and give you credit for your participation. I will monitor the discussion frequently to make sure you are not leading one another astray. Should a problem arise and you cannot help one another, I ask that someone email me directly, so that I will be able to address the question appropriately.
Students are expected to submit assignments with following formats:
Graduate level work should be:
A. Neat - There is no excuse for sloppy work at the graduate level. You can have fantastic ideas and thoughts but if your work is sloppy, colleagues will think your thoughts and ideas are sloppy also. Hundreds of resumes are thrown into the trash every year because they aren't crisp and sharp.
B. Use Proper Grammar - words should be spelled correctly, sentences should be complete, paragraphs should be paragraphs, rules of correct English usage should be followed, etc.
Students are strongly encouraged to plan a regular time each week to go to the web site and complete the lesson. If you don't do this, you will quickly get behind. You may move through the lessons more rapidly than indicated on the syllabus; but you should not go slower.
You are expected to complete assignments in a reasonable period of time. This prevents students from getting too far behind in the course and allows the instructor to assign grades in a consistent manner. Therefore, students are allowed no more than two weeks to complete an assignment without penalty. If a student is not able to complete the assignment(s) during this time frame, they should notify the instructor and explain the reason for a late assignment. The due date for weekly reading assignments is the Monday following the week of the lesson unless specified otherwise in the instructions for the assignment. Late assignments (more than two weeks late) will result in a 10% deduction in the grade for the assignment unless the student receives prior approval from the instructor. Assignments turned in over a month late will result in a 20% deduction.
The students and faculty of NCSU believe that the willingness of students to affirm and adhere to the essential values of honesty and integrity in all their academic endeavors is exemplified in the Honor Pledge: I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this test or assignment. It is university policy that all students sign the Honor Pledge on tests and assignments for each course as specified by the instructor.
The NCSU faculty is authorized and encouraged to require all students to sign the honor pledge on all academic work. See the following website for a full explanation.
This course does not have a laboratory. However, you will be working on your computer during the lessons. Thousands of computers are damaged each year because of power surges, and most of these come through the phone line and damage the modem. You are strongly encouraged to get a modem surge protector and/or to unplug you computer include the modem/phone connection during stormy weather.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 mandate that the faculty provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. These accommodations are based on the premise that students with disabilities need an equal opportunity to acquire information and demonstrate what they have learned; not have an advantage over others in the class. This does not mean lowering class standards, but it may mean having students learn and express knowledge in a different mode.
All students registered with the NC State Office of Disability Services for Students (DSS) will provide the instructor with an accommodation letter. This letter verifies that appropriate medical documentation is on file and that the student has a substantiated disability requiring effective reasonable accommodations. Accommodations for which the student qualifies will also be included in the letter. If you have not registered with the DSS and have a learning disability, you should register in Suite 1900, Student Health Center.
There are no group field trips or field trip costs associated with this course.
You have complete access to the NCSU library. The URL that explains all the library resources available to you is http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/distance/
1. Please check regularly the course webpage and WebCT Vista for important messages about the course.
2. Each week you will click on the class link that corresponds to that week (See top right of the course website). During week one of the class you will click on week one. The dates that correspond with each week are in parenthesis. You should complete the lesson some time during that week. Our objective is to have the lesson for each week posted by Friday of the preceding week.
3. When you go to the weekly lesson, you are to first view the learning objectives for the lesson. This is your guide as to what you should learn.
4. Each week there will be reading assignments. This will be in the list of reading/learning activities. Typically the reading assignments will be listed after lesson objectives. In addition to weekly reading assignments, there will be a discussion topic posted on the discussion board of the WebCT Vista by students. This is a Web technology used by the NC State University to facilitate student learning. You are expected to participate in the discussion as described in the course requirement section of the syllabus.
5. 
One of the benefits of taking a course on-line is the opportunity to experience a multitude of varied materials found on the Internet. Under the list of learning activities there will be a list of web sites, journal articles, papers and other materials to be reviewed. In addition to the text book, I try to utilize the power of the World Wide Web (WWW). You are to visit each site that is listed under the learning activities and read or view the materials. For some of the materials, you will need to have the Acrobat Reader on your computer. If you don't have this program, it can be downloaded for free from Adobe.
6. Most of the lessons will include a Power Point presentation on the lesson topic. When you click the link to the Power Point presentation, you will have two options. One option will be to view each slide utilizing your WWW web viewer. The other option will be to download the Power Point presentation. If you have Power Point on your computer, you may want to download the presentation to your computer, and then open and run the presentation on your computer. This is more time efficient than viewing each slide individually on the WWW. Also, you have the option of printing the slide show and can set your printer to print six slides per page.
7. On most weeks you will complete a reading assignment that relates to the weekly lesson. That is to be completed and e-mailed (or faxed) to the instructor of record for the course. The e-mail address is jay_jayaratne@ncsu.edu and the fax number is 919-515-1965. The weekly reading assignments are due on or before Monday following the week of the lesson unless specified otherwise in the instructions for the assignment. They are considered late if they are received more than a week after their due date. See Policy on Late Assignments.
8. You should establish a standard time every week to work on this class and then do it. This time commitment is essential to be successful in this course. You don't want to get behind because it will be hard to catch up. In a typical on-campus class you would spend 3 hours in the classroom and 6-9 hours reading and doing assignments during a week. This class will take similar time commitments.
9. Please check your e-mail regularly. If you have any question or clarification about the course materials please contact the instructor. When you sending an e-mail, make sure you communicate clearly what your problem or question is and be sure to include your name at the end of your message.
January 9 Class I
January 16 Class II – Reading assignment one
January 23 Class III – Reading Assignment two
January 30 Class IV – Reading assignment three, Evaluation Model Assignment is due
February 6 Class V – Reading assignment four, Program description of the Term Project is due
February 13 Class VI - Reading assignment five
February 20 Class VII –Reading assignment six, Evaluation plan of the Term Project is due
February 27 Class VIII - Mid-term exam is due
March 5 Spring break
March 12 Class IX – Reading assignment seven
March 19 Class X – Reading assignment eight.
March 26 Class XI – Reading assignment nine, Evaluation survey of the Term Project is due.
April 2 Class XII – Evaluation article critique is due.
April 9 Class XIII - Utilization plan of the Term Project is due
April 16 Class XIV - Reading assignment ten.
April 23 Class XV - Group term project complete report is due.
April 30 Final exam is due