Evaluation
Evaluation is a means of collecting and providing data-driven feedback on projects to better understand what works, how to improve, and new avenues for projects. Succinctly, is the project or program doing what was envisioned?
I often work as external evaluator, meaning I'm not a principal investigator (PI) and considered "outside" of the project or program. That said, I do tend to work collaboratively with the PIs or other project/program leadership to ensure the external evaluation is useful.
Some of what I've worked on for external evaluation:
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Areas: undergraduate student experiences, faculty development, course transformation. Equity and inclusion, as well as sustainability (i.e., whether a project can continue after the grant ends), are very much part of these areas.
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Settings: classrooms, departments, workshops, conferences, and online. Anywhere I'm needed!
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Methods: Surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations. The evaluation questions largely determine which method(s) I use.
I do both summative (i.e., examining the project at its end) and formative (i.e., periodic feedback throughout the project's timespan) evaluation. Oftentimes, my work looks beyond whether a project or program is doing what it intends to do and consider the sustainability of the project. Sustainability considers many facets of the likelihood a project or program will continue indefinitely.
Some projects (past and present) I've worked on as an evaluator
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The Partnership for the Integration of Computation in Undergraduate Physics (PICUP)
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Data Science Education Community of Practice (DSECOP)- I'm serving as an internal evaluator.
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Iowa State University Engaged to Excel HHMI project
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Boston University's VIPER project that entailed the creation of HTML5 simulations for physics classes
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Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)'s Normalizing Computation in Undergraduate Physics project
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Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Fellows program for physicists to work on designing and facilitating a workshop on critical conversations regarding EDI.
If you are interested in hiring me to serve as an evaluator, feel free to reach out.