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380.611.81
Fundamentals of Program Evaluation

Location
Internet
Term
1st Term
Department
Population, Family and Reproductive Health
Credit(s)
4
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
Asynchronous Online
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
Yes
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Prerequisite
Description
For students who have had limited to no experience in monitoring and evaluation, this course provides the building blocks and skills needed to design an evaluation.
Familiarizes students with different types of program evaluation, including formative research, process evaluation, impact assessment, cost analysis, and theory-based evaluations. Gains practical experience through a series of exercises involving the design of a logic model, selection of indicators and data sources, and the design of an evaluation plan to measure both a process and impact evaluation. Covers experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental study designs, including the strengths and limitations of each.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Describe a program from the lens of an evaluator
  2. Develop a logic model and explain the theory of change within the model
  3. Select indicators based on the logic model
  4. Identify sources of data at the program and population level corresponding to different types of evaluation
  5. Describe the purpose of formative research and identify the most common methods
  6. Explain the elements of experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and explain how they address the threats to validity
  7. Design a process and impact evaluation and select appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods for each type of evaluation
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
  • 16% LiveTalks
  • 60% Written Assignment(s)
  • 9% Peer-feedback
  • 10% Reflection
  • 5% Discussion Board
Special Comments

Course is prerequisite for 380.612. This is the online version of this class. This version of the course was designed for part-time Master’s and DrPH students, many of whom work full-time, are located outside of the Baltimore area and need the flexibility of asynchronous lectures. If you are interested in participating in synchronous lectures and in having more interaction with your fellow students, we recommend taking the 3rd term course (380.611.01).