Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Development And Evaluation Of A Geographic Information Retrieval System Using Fine Grained Toponyms, Damien Palacio, Curdin Derungs, Ross S. Purves

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Geographic information retrieval (GIR) is concerned with returning information in response to an information need, typically expressed in terms of a thematic and spatial component linked by a spatial relationship. However, evaluation initiatives have often failed to show significant differences between simple text baselines and more complex spatially enabled GIR approaches. We explore the effectiveness of three systems (a text baseline, spatial query expansion, and a full GIR system utilizing both text and spatial indexes) at retrieving documents from a corpus describing mountaineering expeditions, centred around fine grained toponyms. To allow evaluation, we use user generated content (UGC) in the …

Improving Evaluation In Nonprofit Organizations: A Study Of How Evaluation Requests For Proposals Are Developed, Responded To, And Fulfilled, Nakia S. Matthews

Dissertations

It is often necessary for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to formulate a Request for Proposal (RFP) to procure essential contracted services. This is most common when seeking the services of an external evaluator. Since most NPOs do not have internal evaluation staff, developing an appropriate RFP can be quite challenging. With limited literature and resources to guide NPOs on how to prepare RFPs, the process for procuring qualified evaluators can be even more daunting. This lack of resources and supports can lead to insufficient or incomplete RFPs, subsequently narrowing the pool of qualified potential bidders and reducing the extent to which …

A Foundation's Theory Of Philanthropy: What It Is, What It Provides, How To Do It, Michael Quinn Patton, Nathaniel Foote, James Radner

The Foundation Review

This article argues that philanthropic endeavors should be undergirded by a theory of philanthropy. Articulating a theory of philanthropy is a way for a foundation to make explicit what is often only implicit, thereby enabling internal and external actors to pose and resolve significant questions, understand and play important roles more fully and effectively, and improve performance by enhancing alignment across complex systems.

A theory of philanthropy articulates how and why a foundation will use its resources to achieve its mission and vision. The theory-of-philanthropy approach is designed to help foundations align their strategies, governance, operating and accountability procedures, and …

Brisbane Common Ground Evaluation: Final Report, Cameron Parsell, Maree Petersen, Ornella Moutou, Dennis P. Culhane, Ed Lucio, Alan Dick

Dennis P. Culhane

Bus Route Operational Efficiency Evaluation In Milwaukee County, Ebtesam Hazbavi

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

BUS ROUTE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY

by

Ebtesam Hazbavi

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Yue Liu

Public transit systems are expanding in the majority of cities in the United States due to the increasing numbers of people who use public transportation as their main commute facility. Evaluating the efficiency of public transit systems results in providing better services for the residents on one hand and reduces the unnecessary costs on the other hand.

In this research, the efficiencies of bus routes options in County are evaluated. After reviewing different literature, Fuzzy AHP …

Assessment Of The Perceived Role And Function Of A Community Advisory Board In A Nih Center Of Excellence: Lessons Learned, Margaret L. Walsh, Desiree Rivers, Maria Pinzon, Nina Entrekin, Emily M. Hite, Julie A. Baldwin

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: The Community Advisory Board (CAB) was a vital component of the Center for Equal Health. The center addressed health disparities through community-based research and educational outreach initiatives. Objectives: To evaluate the perceived relationship of the CAB and Center, explore members’ perceptions of the CAB’s role, and elicit feedback on how to enhance the relationship between the Center and the CAB. Methods: Ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with a focus on predetermined codes. Results: Main themes focused on perception of CAB roles and need for utilization of board members; overall center challenges; …

A Lifetime Individual Sampling Model (Ism) For Heroin Use And Treatment Evaluation In Australia, Nagesh Shukla, Van Hoang, Marian Shahanan, Alison Ritter, Vu Lam Cao, Pascal Perez

Nagesh Shukla

Illicit drug use has created an enormous burden at societal, family and personal levels. Every year a significant amount of resources is allocated for treatment and the consequences of illicit drug use in Australia and around the world. Heroin is one of the major forms of illicit drugs that are used illegally. Several independent heroin treatment strategies or interventions exist and state-of-the-art research demonstrates their efficacy and relative cost-effectiveness. However, assessing total potential gains and burden from providing all treatment interventions or varying the mix of heroin treatments has never been attempted. Furthermore, the need to include multiple treatments, multiple …

A Theory-Grounded Measure Of Adolescents' Response To Media Literacy Interventions, Kathryn Greene, Itzhak Yanovitzky, Amanda Carpenter, Smita C. Banerjee, Kate Magsamen-Conrad, Michael L. Hecht, Elvira Elek

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy interventions offer relatively new and promising avenues for the prevention of risky health behaviors among children and adolescents, but current literature remains largely equivocal about their efficacy. We propose that (a) much of this ambiguity stems from the lack of conceptual clarity in the literature regarding the cognitive process through which media literacy interventions influence their target audience, and (b) that the ability to track this cognitive process by means of valid and reliable measures is necessary to evaluating the effects of media literacy programs on their audience. Accordingly, the primary objective of this study was to develop …

Assessment Standards, ‘Intentional Alignment’, And Dialogic Inquiry, Claire Wyatt-Smith

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Internationally, the policy move towards standards-aligned instruction is gaining momentum. In Australia, standards have assumed unprecedented prominence in education policy relating both to classroom practice and to teacher preparation and career progression. The move is also evident in the United States, where the lure of standards to inform improvement is clear: significant investment has been committed to longitudinal research to examine at state and district levels the desirable conditions for implementing standards, their impact on developing college- and career-ready teachers, and in turn, the impact on teacher instruction and student outcomes. Moves such as this are occurring in the absence …

Public-Private Partnerships: A Review Of Theory And Practice Of Performance, Junxiao Liu, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Michael Regan, Monty Sutrisna

Michael Regan

Purpose – This paper reviews the normative literature of performance measurement within the context of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of current ex post evaluations of PPPs and identify a feasible direction to comprehensively and effectively measure the performance of PPP infrastructure projects.

Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth literature review is conducted in this paper. The focus of the review is associated with the general performance measurement and performance measurements of PPPs.

Findings – This paper identifies that conventional ex post evaluation is not robust enough to measure the performance of PPP projects. …

Lassi: An Australian Evaluation Of An Enduring Study Skills Assessment Tool, James Gt Marland, Joanne Dearlove, Jennifer Carpenter

James Grice Thomas Marland

This study assesses the reliability and validity of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI), an American survey instrument, in an Australian context. The results of this study were compared with those generated by a comparison study held at a different Australian university and also against other internationally published research. There was a high degree of similarity between the LASSI scores from the students at the two Australian universities, however these scores were considerably different from norms published in the LASSI manual. The students' scores in this study were also compared with data on their gender and age and the …

2015 Food And Function: An Assessment Of The Capacity Of Food Pantry Programs In San Diego County, Mary Jo Schumann, Crystal Trull, Carolyn Noack

Food Security

Food pantry programs play a critical role in meeting a basic need for thousands of individuals and families each year. They are the front-line support mechanism for providing short-term or emergency assistance to those struggling with food insecurity. San Diego County has a wide variety of food pantry programs that are helping to meet the need of thousands of hungry residents across the region.

In 2012, several of the major emergency food provider agencies in San Diego County gathered to discuss how collaboration could support cost-saving efficiencies in the food distribution network, and subcommittees were formed to collaborate on achieving …

Evaluating Sexual Assault Prevention Training Programs For College Women, Eliza S. Mcmanus

Dissertations

Sexual victimization is a frequent and concerning problem for college women. It is estimated that college women are three times more likely to experience sexual assault than women in the general population. Additionally, women with a history of unwanted sexual experiences are at greater risk for future sexual victimization than women without such histories. For these reasons, the examination of college-based sexual assault prevention programs is important given the high rates of unwanted sexual experiences and subsequent negative mental health consequences. Furthermore, the lack of effective skills-based sexual assault prevention programs on college campuses is an important issue to address. …

Evaluating Library Spaces While Developing A ‘Culture Of Assessment’, Gulcin Cribb, Tamera Hanken, Swapna Gottipati

Research Collection Library

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Library Spaces While Developing A ‘Culture Of Assessment’, Gulcin Cribb, Tamera Hanken, Swapna Gottipati

Research Collection Library

Background

Since 2012, Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Li Ka Shing Library has been actively responding to three primary drivers of change: The first is the University’s educational initiative to encourage blended learning and project based learning; The second is the need to increase the quality and quantity of Library spaces, to create more quiet spaces, to improve the zoning for teaching and learning activities in support of collaborative, team and project based learning; The third is the Library’s own Culture of Assessment initiative to encourage decision making and continuous improvement based on data and evidence.

In late 2013, the Library …

Evaluating Library Spaces While Developing A "Culture Of Assessment", Gulcin Cribb, Tamera Hanken, Swapna Gottipati

Research Collection Library

BackgroundSince 2012, Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Li Ka Shing Library has been actively responding to three primary drivers of change: The first is the University’s educational initiative to encourage blended learning and project based learning; The second is the need to increase the quality and quantity of Library spaces, to create more quiet spaces, to improve the zoning for teaching and learning activities in support of collaborative, team and project based learning; The third is the Library’s own Culture of Assessment initiative to encourage decision making and continuous improvement based on data and evidence.In late 2013, the Library received funding …

Programming For The Public Good: Ensuring Public Value Through The Cooperative Extension Program Development Model, Nancy Franz

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Effective Cooperative Extension programs produce important private and public value for individuals, families, businesses, and communities. However, the public value of Extension programming often goes unmeasured and unarticulated. Extension needs to reclaim its role as a key provider of public value for LandGrant Universities through strong educational programs driven by infusing public value into all elements of the Extension Program Development Model. This article describes Extension’s public value movement including organizational, professional, program, and scholarship development efforts to enhance public good effectiveness articulation. Lessons learned, implications, and next steps for Extension’s public value success through a strong program development model …

From Farm Results Demonstrations To Multistate Impact Designs: Cooperative Extension Navigates Its Way Through Evaluation Pathways, Allison Nichols, Stephanie M. Blake, Scott Chazdon, Rama Radhakrishna

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

This article explores how evaluation has been developed and expanded within the Cooperative Extension system, from the beginning of agricultural education in America in 1800 to the present day. Important periods across the history of Extension evaluation have been identified and categorized according to major themes and significant contributions of Extension individuals and organizations. Challenges for the future of evaluation within Extension are discussed.

Grey Matter(S): Embracing The Publisher Within, Lisa Brooks, Gabriela Fitz

The Foundation Review

Most foundations don’t think of themselves as publishers, yet many of them act as such – making information available by funding research and publications, or by authoring their own. And failing to think of these activities as publishing efforts has serious consequences for shared learning in the social sector.

The shift toward knowledge-sharing strategies and approaches that embrace new search technologies, the logic of open access and open source, and the realities of the Internet as a largely decentralized and dynamic selfpublishing space offers the possibility of coordinating publishing efforts, and possibly agreeing to the use of shared practices that …

Network Evaluation In Practice: Approaches And Applications, Madeleine Taylor, Anne Whatley, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

As more funders support networks as a mechanism for social change, new and practical knowledge is emerging about how to build and support effective networks. Based on extensive review of different types of networks and their evaluations, and on interviews with funders, network practitioners, and evaluation experts, the authors have developed an accessible framework for evaluating networks.

This article describes the evaluation framework and its three pillars of network assessment: network connectivity, network health, and network results.

Also presented are case examples of foundationfunded network evaluations focused on each pillar, which include practical information on evaluation designs, methods, and results, …

Today’S Librarian And Building An Evaluation Team, Judith A. Savageau, Len L. Levin

Judith A. Savageau

Blog post to AEA365, a blog sponsored by the American Evaluation Association (AEA) dedicated to highlighting Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources, and Lessons Learned for evaluators. The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology, and many other forms of evaluation. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness.

Got Hope? Measuring The Construct Of Relationship Hope With A Nationally Representative Sample Of Married Individuals, Sage Elizabeth Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores an emerging construct: relationship hope. I define relationship hope as when individuals feel that regardless of the current quality of the relationship, there is significant hope for the relationship in the future if they keep working on it. The Relationship Hope Scale (RHS) is a new five-item scale that measures this construct. I evaluated the psychometric properties of RHS with Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). I used a nationally representative sample of married individuals, ages 25-50 years old, in the United States. I found that RHS performs well in both CTT and IRT …

Design, Validation, And Reliability Of Survey To Measure Female Athlete Triad Knowledge Among Coaches, Jillian E. Frideres, Sue G. Mottinger, Jose M. Palao

Health & Human Performance Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study was to design and to test the validity and reliability of an instrument to evaluate coaches’ knowledge about the female athlete triad syndrome and their confidence in this knowledge. The instrument collects information regarding: knowledge of the syndrome, components, prevention and intervention; confidence of the coaches in their answers; and coach's characteristics (gender, degree held, years of experience in coaching females, continuing education participation specific to the syndrome and its components, and sport coached). The process of designing the questionnaire and testing the validity and reliability of it was done in four phases: a) design …

An Evaluation Of The Primary Care Providers’ Perspective Of The Effects Of Moderate Alcohol Consumption On Health, Gisele Tchamba

Dissertations

The complexity of health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption (MAC) is well documented. From the World Health Organization recent report, impact of harm from alcohol consumption was 3.3 million deaths or 5.9 percent of all global deaths (WHO, 2014).

Yet, the benefits of MAC for better health and longer life expectancy compared with abstinence are advocated in numerous studies (Nova, Baccan, Zapatera and Marcos, 2012). However, the nature of alcohol, its role on human sufferings has generated disagreements in the scientific community. Analysis of the results of early studies advocating better health for moderate drinkers, reveal discrepancies regarding the influence …

Unlocking The Potential Of Library Generated Data To Assess Value, Impact, And Influence, Margie Jantti, Brian Cox

Margie Jantti

The University of Wollongong Library (UWL) has initiated an innovative and collaborative research project to unambiguously demonstrate the value that can be provided by academic libraries. The project centres on the integration and interrogation of a series of discrete datasets, e.g. student performance, student attrition, student demographic data, and borrowing and electronic resources usage data. The project has enabled UWL to identify whether a correlation exists between usage of Library resources and academic performance (e.g. grades). Findings reveal a strong and sustained correlation; providing a new facet through which to view and understand the student academic experience.The project is different …

Welfare-To-Work Reform And Intergenerational Support: Grandmothers' Response To The 1996 Prwora, Ho, Christine

Research Collection School Of Economics

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA; Pub. L. 104-193) in the United States aimed at encouraging work among low-income mothers with children below age 18. In this study, the author used a sample of 2,843 intergenerational family observations from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate the effects of the reform on single grandmothers who are related to those mothers. The results suggest that the reform decreased time transfers but increased money transfers from grandmothers. The results are consistent with an intergenerational family support network where higher child care subsidies motivated the family to shift away …

Understanding Philanthropy Consulting: A Tool To Identify The Roles And Capabilities Needed From External Support, Brian Leslie, Kelsey Noonan, Clint Nohavec

The Foundation Review

This article categorizes the distinct roles played by philanthropy consultants and presents a tool and framework for charitable foundations to identify and evaluate the roles and capabilities they need from those consultants.

The article categorizes seven capability areas, from strategy setting to talent development, that are core to all foundations. Then, it identifies trigger points within these capability areas that lead foundations to undertake projects that may require outside support. Third, the article maps the capabilities that foundations consider in determining whether and how to engage philanthropy consultants.

The resulting tool is scalable and broadly applicable, providing foundation staff and …

How Do Musicians Evaluate Their Musical Performances? The Impact Of Positive And Negative Information From Normative, Ipsative, And Expectation Standards, Ellen-Ge Denton, William F. Chaplin

Publications and Research

The purpose of the research reported in this article was to test two hypotheses about how musicians evaluate their musical performances. The first hypothesis was that musicians’ self-evaluations would be more influenced by their expectations and their past performances than by comparisons to the performances of other musicians. The second hypothesis was that musicians would exhibit an ‘adaptive evaluational style’ by showing more sensitivity to positive feedback than to negative feedback. We used the Experimental Evaluational Styles Questionnaire (Goolsby & Chaplin, 1988) in a sample of 78 music performance students (43 men and 35 women) to test these hypotheses, and …

Using Kinship Navigators To Assess The Needs Of Kinship Caregivers, Suzanne T. Sutphin

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Kinship care is a viable alternative to foster care for many children, however, the proper supports and services must be in place for the families. This article describes a kinship navigator program for children and kin caregivers involved in Child Protective Services in-home treatment cases. The program was piloted over a three-year period to assess and address the service needs of kinship caregivers. Using the Family Needs Scale as a measurement tool, the results of the evaluation are provided along with a discussion of the need to support caregivers to provide the best outcomes for children in kinship care.

Beyond Outputs: Pathways To Symmetrical Evaluations Of University Sustainable Development Partnerships, Peter Koehn, Juha I. Uitto

Political Science Faculty Publications

As the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) draws to a close, it is timely to review ways in which the sustainable development initiatives of higher education institutions have been, and can be, evaluated. In their efforts to document and assess collaborative sustainable development program outcomes and impacts, universities in the North and South are challenged by similar conundrums that confront development agencies. This article explores pathways to symmetrical evaluations of transnationally partnered research, curricula, and public-outreach initiatives specifically devoted to sustainable development. Drawing on extensive literature and informed by international development experience, the authors present a …