Research and Program Evaluation

Research and Program Evaluation
Textbook: Chapter 16
Christensen, L.B., Burke Johnson, R., & Turner, L.A. (2014) Research methods, design, and analysis (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

MHC 652E: Research and Program Evaluation
Team Project Sheet: Case Study – Program Evaluation

**Before you begin this project, be sure to read the following:

Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2013). Understanding distinctions in learning in hybrid, and online environments: An empirical investigation of the community of framework. Interactive Learning Environments, 21(4), 355-370.
(This article can be found in the Projects and Handouts section.)

Chapter 16 of your textbook – Preparing the Research Report for Presentation or Publication

Project Description:

College of Sunshine has been selected as the site of a study, supported by a private foundation. The goal of this research is to use a “distributed learning” strategy for connecting the college with its surrounding community, particularly businesses. The method for accomplishing this goal is to use various ways of interacting across distance [virtual/digital modes] in addition to face-to-face interaction. Your recommendations should be practical and creative, the foundation possesses the financial resources necessary to support sophisticate, far reaching efforts.
The team’s primary challenge is to select which of the following modes of media above should be used to accomplish various types of functional connections. (For example, in connecting students and teachers, should the primary medium be face to face? a multi-user virtual environment? asynchronous discussions?). For each kind of linkage below, your group is asked to recommend and justify which of the six media [listed below] to use as the primary communications method across distance, providing a substantive rationale for the choice.
In your recommendations, be sure to:

*Connect teachers and students.

*Connect community members and business people with special expertise to students studying topics based on that expertise.

*Connect community college instructors and business people interested in articulating the skills college graduates should have and the role the community college should play.

*Connect instructors to faculty at other colleges to enable joint teaching of courses offered locally at individual campuses, but taught by a national coalition of instructors.

*Connect community leaders, college administrators, and the school’s board to share ideas on how this demonstration site should evolve.

The final product will be an 8-10 page research paper that includes all the components listed above and follows APA guidelines. The title page, abstract, and references page do not count toward the 8-10 pages.

Media Forms to Consider:
1. Asynchronous discussions

2. Synchronous interaction in a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE)

3. Google docs

4. Telementoring

5. Website-based archives

6. Internet-based videoconferencing

7. Social networking (Be specific)