Digital Commons Network^™

The Limits Of The Ethnographic Turn, Bharat Ranganathan

Religion Faculty Publications

This article reflects on the ethnographic turn in recent comparative religious ethics (CRE). Comparative religious ethicists should be lauded because they privilege engagement with non-Western intellectual sources. Such engagement is important since it undermines the erroneous view that non-Western sources are either soft or are part of someone else's commitments and therefore irrelevant. Yet some recent comparative work stops at merely describing these non-Western sources, moving ethics away from its normative tasks. If CRE is to remain relevant to broader conversations in moral and political theory, comparative religious ethicists should perform two tasks: they should evaluate the object under consideration …

Moving Toward A Collective Impact Effort: The Volunteer Program Assessment, Sheridan Trent, Kelly Prange, Joseph A. Allen

Psychology Faculty Publications

Volunteers are essential to the operation of many nonprofits, but some experience challenges in retaining their volunteer workforce. The Volunteer Program Assessment (VPA) seeks to address this issue by helping organizations to identify strengths, growth areas, and recommendations for improving volunteer experiences. To maximize the effectiveness of VPA’s mission, the organization is moving toward a collective impact (CI) approach. Although not developed as a CI effort, the program currently exemplifies many of its characteristics, which have been instrumental in expanding reach to more organizations. We examine VPA’s alignment with collective impact and outline how VPA will continue to improve efforts.

Toward Visualization-Specific Heuristic Evaluation, Alvin E. Tarrell, Camilla Forsell, Ann L. Fruhling, Georges Grinstein, Rita Borgo, Jean Scholtz

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This position paper describes heuristic evaluation as it relates to visualization and visual analytics. We review heuristic evaluation in general, then comment on previous process-based, performance-based, and framework-based efforts to adapt the method to visualization-specific needs. We postulate that the framework-based approach holds the most promise for future progress in development of visualization-specific heuristics, and propose a specific framework as a starting point. We then recommend a method for community involvement and input into the further development of the heuristic framework and more detailed design and evaluation guidelines.

Evaluation Of Gogirlgo!; A Practitioner Based Program To Improve Physical Activity, Jennifer L. Huberty, Danae M. Dinkel, Michael W. Beets

Health and Kinesiology Faculty Publications

Background:
GoGirlGo! (GGG) is designed to increase girls’ physical activity (PA) using a health behavior and PA-based curriculum and is widely available for free to afterschool programs across the nation. However, GGG has not been formally evaluated. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the GGG curricula to improve PA, and self-efficacy for and enjoyment of PA in elementary aged girls (i.e., 5-13 years).

Methods:
Nine afterschool programs were recruited to participate in the pilot (within subjects repeated measures design). GGG is a 12-week program, with a once a week, one-hour lesson with 30 minutes …

Furious Activity Vs. Understanding: How Much Expertise Is Needed To Evaluate Creative Work?, Learning Research Institute, John Baer, David H. Cropley, Roni Reiter-Palmon

Psychology Faculty Publications

What is the role of expertise in evaluating creative products? Novices and experts do not assess creativity similarly, indicating domain-specific knowledge’s role in judging creativity. We describe two studies that examined how quasi-experts (people who have more experience in a domain than novices but also lack recognized standing as experts) compared to novices and experts in rating creative work. In Study One, we compared different types of quasi-experts with novices and experts in rating short stories. In Study Two, we compared experts, quasi-experts, and novices in evaluating an engineering product (a mousetrap design). Quasi-experts (regardless of type) seemed to be …

Ohio Regional Forum Report Findings From The Survey And Small Small-Group Participation, Ryan E. Spohn

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center (MCWIC) is collaborating with The Ohio Office of Families and Children (OFC) to develop and implement a new technical assistance (TA) model. This project is a part of Ohio's systemic effort to improve its child welfare outcomes, and will materially alter how OFC works with Ohio's county-administered child welfare offices. It will build Ohio's capacity to implement evidence-informed and promising child welfare interventions.

To inform the process of developing a new technical assistance model, MCWIC hosted a series of ten regional forums throughout the state during July, 2010. The purpose of these events was …

A Design Science Based Evaluation Framework For Patterns, Stacie Clarke Petter, Deepak Khazanchi, John D. Murphy

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Patterns were originally developed in the field of architecture as a mechanism for communicating good solutions to recurring classes of problems. Since then, many researchers and practitioners have created patterns to describe effective solutions to problems associated with disparate areas such as virtual project management, human-computer interaction, software development and engineering, and design science research. We believe that the development of patterns is a design science activity in which an artifact (i.e., a pattern) is created to communicate about and improve upon the current state-of-practice. Design science research has two critical components, creation and evaluation of an artifact. While many …

Guidelines For Evaluating Patterns In The Is Domain, Deepak Khazanchi, John D. Murphy, Stacie Clarke Petter

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Patterns were originally developed in the field of architecture as a mechanism for communicating good solutions to recurring classes of problems. Since then researchers have created patterns to provide guidance and solutions associated with virtual project management, software development and engineering, human computer interaction, and design science research. However, there has been limited emphasis on developing guidelines for evaluating the validity of patterns. In this paper, we propose an evaluation framework for patterns that draws upon the literature associated with patterns, philosophy of science and research methods. The evaluation framework can be used to validate patterns in a more consistent …

Evaluating A Four State Workforce Education Project: Questions Of Investigative Interest And Impact, Neal Grandgenett, Elliott Ostler, Applied Information Management Institute, Jeanne L. Surface

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

How can a large scale, multi-state, collaborative workforce development project be evaluated? This article describes the evaluation process of the Midwest Center for Information Technology (MCIT). The project uses “impact threads” to connect the outcomes of the project to strategic evaluation questions. The MCIT project, involving 10 public two-year colleges located in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota, strives to assist partner colleges in enhancing information technology training and related degree programs. The MCIT was funded as a regional center within the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF). This article details the evaluation plan …

Research Implications In The Prevention Of Child Abuse And Neglect, Jeanette Harder

Social Work Faculty Publications

Child abuse and neglect is a problem of vast proportions. Research on the effectiveness of child abuse and neglect prevention programs is critical for the provision of effective and efficient services. This paper provides a critical analysis of the research methodologies on child abuse and neglect prevention programs at the secondary and tertiary levels, as represented in the empirical literature. The paper begins by outlining the levels of prevention, and by describing child abuse and neglect prevention programs, as published in the empirical literature. This paper then goes on to describe and analyze the research conducted on these programs, to …

Prevention Of Child Abuse And Neglect: An Evaluation Of A Home Visitation Parent Aide Program Using Recidivism Data, Jeanette Harder

Social Work Faculty Publications

Objective: The purpose of this research was to examine the secondary and tertiary prevention of child abuse and neglect through an evaluation of the Parent Aide program at the Child Abuse Prevention Center in Dallas, Texas. Method: Using a quasi-experimental, retrospective research design, this project compared abuse recidivism rates for those parents who completed, dropped out, or refused to participate in a home visitation child abuse prevention program. Results: Parents who completed the Parent Aide program had fewer subsequent, substantiated reports to Child Protective Services (CPS) of child abuse or neglect than those parents who refused to participate or dropped …

Self-Assessment Tool For Service-Learning Sustainability, Community-Campus Partnerships For Health

Evaluation/Reflection

This self-assessment tool was designed to assist you in assessing the stage of institutionalization of service-learning (SL) at multiple levels within your institution your department or division, your school or college, and your university or organization as a whole. We encourage you to consult your colleagues, students and community partners as you complete the tool. The tool is comprehensive, but please don't feel overwhelmed -if you don't know an answer, simply mark that on the form. Your answers, and the discussions that it stimulates, will assist you in developing a plan for SL sustainability. Having a better handle on what …

Community-Based Education And Service: The Hpsisn Experience, Sherril B. Glemmon, Barbara A. Holland, Anu F. Shinnamon, Beth A. Morris

Partnerships/Community

Health services delivery is increasingly shifting to community-based settings. The competencies required of future health professionals require a shift in their educational preparation. Service leaning is suggested as an educational method with the potential to reform health professions education in tandem with the changes occurring in the health services delivery. The Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program (HPSISN), a US demonstration project of service learning in the health professions, examines the impact of service leaning on students, faculty, communities and institutions across a wide array of universities and community settings. This paper describes the evaluation of the …

Foster Parent Training Program: Evaluation Report 1983-1984, Carole Davis

Publications

Over the past two years, the Foster Parent Training project, in close cooperation with the Department of Social Services, has been successful in training over 1,000 foster parents and caseworkers in the Basic and Adolescent curricula. A statewide network capable of providing on-going support to local foster parents has been developed. In addition to the 16 regional trainers, over 55 local people interested in foster care have participated as co-trainers. The involvement of other local resource people such as judges, counselors, caseworkers, and attorneys has increased the number involved in training even more. The following report presents a summary of …