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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Selected Works

Evaluation

2010

Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Collaborative Design Projects: Evaluating Students' Online Discussions, S. Lambert Nov 2010

Collaborative Design Projects: Evaluating Students' Online Discussions, S. Lambert

Sarah Lambert

This paper reports on the author’s work to evaluate student online discussion, a learning tool used in a face-to-face graphic design subject centred around a collaborative design project. A modified teaching and learning model with new online resources was trialled with approx 45 undergraduate design students in session 1 of 2003. The 4 students in each project team were allocated a specific role based on contemporary design studio practice. An online discussion space was set up for each project team. A number of evaluation techniques were used including a content analysis of online discussion postings on which this paper focuses. …

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Minding Your Own Business: Can A Business Excellence Framework Translate To The Education Sector? , Margie H. Jantti Nov 2010

Minding Your Own Business: Can A Business Excellence Framework Translate To The Education Sector? , Margie H. Jantti

Margie Jantti

As the first education and training organisation to be recognised with an Australian Business Excellence Award in the Award’s 14 year history, the University of Wollongong Library has demonstrated how the principles of excellence can readily be translated to the education and service sector. Many higher education institutions are planning or preparing for the audit process developed by the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The audit process, particularly the internal self assessment will be firmly focussed on practices and processes aligned with the stated vision and mission of the institution; how plans and objectives are translated into operational activities; how …

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Stakeholder Engagement In Social Learning To Resolve Controversies Over Land-Use Change To Plantation Forestry, Andrea J. Leys, Jerome K. Vanclay Jun 2010

Stakeholder Engagement In Social Learning To Resolve Controversies Over Land-Use Change To Plantation Forestry, Andrea J. Leys, Jerome K. Vanclay

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

Rapid land-use change arising from incentives for afforestation has created tensions in rural communities previously dominated by agricultural enterprises. This paper reports on an innovative experiment with social learning that incorporated participatory modelling to resolve community concerns in a case study of plantation forestry in the Upper Clarence catchment of north-eastern NSW Australia. The development of a diagnostic framework helped identify socioeconomic and environmental issues within the community for investigation by a self-selected participatory advisory committee (PAC) representing a diversity of views. Implementation of a social learning exercise offered empathetic and intellectual engagement among PAC members that maintained interest, built …

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Advice From The Trenches: Post Purchase Evaluation, Annie Smith, Regina Koury, Cheryl Sebold, Jenny Semenza May 2010

Advice From The Trenches: Post Purchase Evaluation, Annie Smith, Regina Koury, Cheryl Sebold, Jenny Semenza

Annie Smith

Presented as part of a larger presentation about evaluating and purchasing databases and negotiating database licenses, this section focused on post purchase evaluation of databases. Databases are constantly changing their content and their features and these need to be monitored. In addition, this presentation covers how to collect and analyze usage statistics.

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Effects Of Library Instruction On University Students’ Satisfaction With The Library: A Longitudinal Study, Anthony Stamatoplos, Robert Mackoy Apr 2010

Effects Of Library Instruction On University Students’ Satisfaction With The Library: A Longitudinal Study, Anthony Stamatoplos, Robert Mackoy

Robert Mackoy

Consideration of satisfaction should be an important part of the evaluation of library services. Satisfaction depends, to some extent, on patron expectations of services. This study evaluated changes in student expectations following library instruction and how they were related to overall, long-term satisfaction with the library. Satisfaction appeared to be related to student perceptions of information accessibility, staff competence and helpfulness, computer usefulness and ease of use, and skill level for using libraries. The study suggests that libraries may be well served by measuring patron satisfaction and learning what variables drive satisfaction at particular libraries.

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Science Overlay Maps: A New Tool For Research Policy And Library Management, Ismael Rafols, Alan L. Porter, Loet Leydesdorff Jan 2010

Science Overlay Maps: A New Tool For Research Policy And Library Management, Ismael Rafols, Alan L. Porter, Loet Leydesdorff

alan l porter

We present a novel approach to visually locate bodies of research within the sciences, both at each moment of time and dynamically. This article describes how this approach fits with other efforts to locally and globally map scientific outputs. We then show how these science overlay maps help benchmark, explore collaborations, and track temporal changes, using examples of universities, corporations, funding agencies, and research topics. We address their conditions of application and discuss advantages, downsides and limitations. Overlay maps especially help investigate the increasing number of scientific developments and organisations that do not fit within traditional disciplinary categories. We make …

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Evaluating Eu Policies On Public Services: A Citizens' Approach, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes Jan 2010

Evaluating Eu Policies On Public Services: A Citizens' Approach, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes

Judith Clifton

This article evaluates EU policies on public services – particularly public network services - from the citizens´ point of view. It is first argued that citizens´ perceptions are important because the provision of fundamental services is at stake and because they constitute the infrastructure necessary for social and economic development. Citizens’ “voice” can, therefore, be known, analysed and used in the design of improved policy on public services along with other indicators. Changing EU policy on public services is synthesised and classified into two main phases in section two. Citizen satisfaction with public services as revealed through surveys from 1997 …

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The Logic Of Evaluation And Not-For-Profit Arts Organizations: The Perspective Of An Evaluation Consultant, Brandon Youker Dec 2009

The Logic Of Evaluation And Not-For-Profit Arts Organizations: The Perspective Of An Evaluation Consultant, Brandon Youker

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

This article defines evaluation, describes the logic of evaluation and discusses evaluation as it pertains to not-for-profit arts organizations. The purpose is to explain to not-for-profit arts organizations how an evaluation consultant conceptualizes the task of program evaluation. The article is based on the perspective and experiences of a consultant who was contracted to assist in building the program monitoring and internal evaluation capacities of arts organizations. Understanding the basics of systematic evaluation will assist arts organizations in developing sound program monitoring and evaluation strategies and practices.

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