In this reflective case, we examine the role and function of collaboration in use-oriented evaluation approaches. Reflecting on our experience evaluating a program that sought to integrate new technologies into K-12 teaching and pre-service teacher education, we found that the desire and pursuit of making evaluation useful can influence why, with…

Donald Kirkpatrick published a series of articles originating from his doctoral dissertation in the late 1950s describing a four-level training evaluation model. From its beginning, it was easily understood and became one of the most influential evaluation models impacting the field of HRD. While well received and popular, the Kirkpatrick model…

Librarians often wish to know whether readers in a particular discipline favor e-books or print books. Because print circulation and e-book usage statistics are not directly comparable, it can be hard to determine the relative interest of readers in the two types of books. This study demonstrates a two-step method by which librarians can assess…

The rapid development of the information and communication technologies has brought about the modernization of teaching and learning across the globe. Today, teaching and learning are made easy through the use of computer technologies and/or the electronic and other multi-media elements. It is widely accepted that electronic learning naturally…

A cross-case analysis of four National Science Foundation (NSF) case studies identified both unique details and common themes related to promoting the use and influence of multisite evaluations. The analysis provided evidence of diverse evaluation use by stakeholders and suggested that people taking part in the multisite evaluations perceived…

Although the use of structured interview protocols for selecting and hiring teachers is not new, the use of online screeners such as the TeacherInsight interview is relatively recent and becoming more common. These online tools are being used not only to screen candidates for full-time teaching positions but also to filter out candidates for…

This article deals with evaluating an interactive learning environment (ILE) during the iterative-design process. Various aspects of the system must be assessed and a number of evaluation methods are available. In designing the ILE Ambre-add, several techniques were combined to test and refine the system. In particular, we point out the merits of…

With advances in information and network technologies, lots of data have been digitized to reveal information for users by the construction of Web sites. Unfortunately, they are both overloading and overlapping in Internet so that users cannot distinguish their quality. To address this issue in education, Hwang, Huang, and Tseng proposed a group…

LOCO-Analyst is a learning analytics tool we developed to provide educators with feedback on students learning activities and performance. Evaluation of the first version of the tool led to the enhancement of the tool's data visualization, user interface, and supported feedback types. The second evaluation of the improved tool allowed us to see…

Recent science education reform has been marked by a shift away from a focus on facts toward deep, rich, conceptual understanding. This requires assessment that also focuses on conceptual understanding rather than recall of facts. This study outlines our development of a new assessment framework and tool--a taxonomy--which, unlike existing…

In an era of evidence-based practice, why are clinicians not typically engaged in evidence-based assessment? To begin to understand this issue, a national multidisciplinary survey was conducted to examine clinician attitudes toward standardized assessment tools. There were 1,442 child clinicians who provided opinions about the psychometric…

The purposes of this study were to evaluate a federal and state-funded Family Caregiver Support Program (FCSP) and explore what types of caregiver support service are associated with what caregiver outcomes. Information was obtained on a sample of 164 caregivers' use of eleven different types of support service. Descriptive and comparative…

Despite the central role of assessment in special education, there is a paucity of current research on instruments and methods used in schools. Special education directors (N = 164) in five northeastern states responded to an electronic survey related to the use of assessment instruments and methods in their districts. Data are presented regarding…

Four early childhood education teachers, two veteran and two newer teachers, were asked to pilot the use of handheld Personal Data Assistants loaded with Childchart assessment software. The participants were observed in their use of the electronic devices for monitoring student performance and interviewed regarding the use of the devices and their…

Various normalization techniques to transform journal impact factors (JIFs) into a standard scale or range of values have been reported a number of times in the literature, but have seldom been part of collection development librarians' tool kits. In this paper, JIFs as reported in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database are converted to…