Program Evaluation of Communication Training Within an Organization

REQUIREMENTS FOR PROGRAM EVALUATION PAPER
You will write a plan to evaluate the case example below. This means that your research question will generally be of the form: Does program X do Y? You must describe what program, process, policy X is and then what outcome you expect it to produce.
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Paper Topic
The organization is a large, complex public sector entity with multiple different types of work and workers. A recent assessment, that has already occurred, identified the need for more effective, professional communication. Human resources personnel have developed a set of online training modules to enhance communication in the work setting. How would one evaluate the effect of the training? (Using a specific evaluation design.)
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You will also engage in some internet research to leverage available resources to help your evaluation. Not counting references to course materials, you will likely have 12-15 references (mainly scholarly research articles), although you may cite additional non-scholarly sources. Your references should support the various elements of the things you are discussing in the evaluation plan. For example, you might refer to another evaluation which uses a similar research design or one that defines a term you are using. One reference to be the class textbook, “Evaluation in Organizations: A Systematic Approach to Enhancing Learning, Performance, and Change Kindle Edition by Darlene Russ-Eft, Hallie Preskill.” One reference to be the uploaded article, “Analysis and Evaluation of Training Effectiveness.”
You must also include a separate references section. References in the text and in the references section will follow American Sociological Association format which is available online.
You should also include an appendix that lists a timeline of tasks to be completed in the evaluation from project inception through data collection and analysis and reporting.
I expect that the papers will likely be approximately 4000-4500 words long. They must be typed and double-spaced (your reference page should be single spaced with a space in between each), with 12- point Times New Roman font, with one- inch margins. There is no need to develop a mock budget. You must also have a title page with word count for the body of the paper.
Following an introductory paragraph or two, the paper will address the following: (each section should be labeled). Each of these sections should have a detailed discussion that shows your understanding of the materials we have discussed in class. Your discussion of each section should be thorough and detailed enough to allow the reader a deep understanding of that part of the evaluation.

Introduction (One or two paragraphs)
• Evaluation’s rationale and purpose
o This should provide an overview of the reason(s) the evaluation is being conducted. You should also very concisely describe your program evaluation plan (your specific evaluation design). The introduction sets the tone for the whole paper, so it is important that it be done well. The introduction should be no more than a page.
Program Description
• Program logic model
o This should provide a concise description of the key concepts and their relationships. It is critical that you accompany this logic model with a clarification of key concepts / terms and ultimately how you might measure them.
• Identification of key stakeholders
o These will vary dramatically depending on the setting / questions you are operating within. However, in all contexts, it will be important to discuss who the key stakeholders are and how you will engage them.
• Key evaluation questions
o These are high level questions not specific questions from a survey.
Evaluation Design and Methods (Again, using your chosen specific evaluation design)
• Data collection strategy
• Key independent, dependent and control variables (or data you need to collect if this is a formative/ developmental evaluation).
This section is where you describe your plan for collecting the data necessary to conduct the evaluation. Tell me how you will go about collecting your data. You will likely need to discuss whether sampling is relevant for your evaluation and if so, what strategy you are using. This section provides the blueprint for the study so you must clearly spell out the research design. If you are conducting a summative or outcome evaluation, you should also deal with issues of cause and effect. What design are you proposing- experiment or quasi-experiment, etc.? Be sure to discuss why this is the best design for the evaluation under the circumstances.

Then you need to identify the independent variable(s), dependent variable(s) and relevant control variables. You should include a diagram of the logic model of the program and specifically discuss inputs, outputs, and outcomes as well. Describe specifically how each key concept will be defined…PLEASE SEE UPLOADED DOCUMENT FOR THE REST.