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Evaluation is the process by which we estimate how things should go, explore how things are going, and determine how things went in terms of course redesign. In this chapter, we examine formative and summative methods for assessing student learning and establishing teacher effectiveness and course quality. Evaluation is a subjective, value-laden process. To introduce the rigor needed to make it meaningful, evaluation should be multifaceted, planned in advance, made transparent to learners, and employ valid and reliable methods. Moving courses online presents both opportunities and challenges for evaluation. We explore ways to implement assessment to make full use of the advantages of technology while mitigating the problems associated with online delivery.

In this chapter, the author builds from foundational scholarship which suggests that service-learning yields positive outcomes for students, faculty, and community partners. The author first suggests that service-learning can be a vehicle for humanizing community partners as well as students, faculty, and course content, then describes a program evaluation context wherein community partners would benefit from a humanizing service-learning experience. The author then introduces the field of program evaluation and the foundational documents espoused by the American Evaluation Association, and looks at the organizational structure of the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, which houses the Evaluation Studies specialization. Next, the author presents a foundational program evaluation course, discussing its emphasis on service-learning and on humanizing the students, community partners, and course content, and introducing the textbooks, readings, and activities used to bring the experience to life. The author concludes by looking at opportunities and challenges to integrating program evaluation into a departmental core at other universities.

Management training and development is currently in vogue. There appears to be a growing belief in the benefits of investment in training and development. When a market is buoyant is the time to consider and anticipate the consequences of a future downturn in demand. Such a downturn in demand may demonstrate increasing pressure to “justify” investment in training and development. There is a long established academic body of knowledge on the subject of evaluating training and development. From research evidence and the authors′ experience, the sponsors and the providers of training and development pay scant attention to systematic evaluation of these activities and investments. It is the authors′ contention that when the market′s critical assessment of the value of training and development increases there will be an increasing interest in evaluation. An overview of the history of evaluation traditions is provided and the state of play is commented upon. It is noted that there is a shortfall between theory and practice. It is argued that evaluation is a worthwhile and important activity and ways through the evaluation literature maze and the underpinnings of the activity are demonstrated, especially to management. Similarly the literature on evaluation techniques is reviewed. Tables are provided which demonstrate areas of major activity and identify relatively uncharted waters. This monograph provides a resource whereby practitioners can choose techniques which are appropriate to the activity on which they are engaged. It highlights the process which should be undertaken to make that choice in order that needs of the major stakeholders in the exercise are fully met.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for the analysis of students’ ratings of teaching quality in higher education and the disclosure of risky issues undermining the quality of teaching and courses that require attention for continuous improvement. The framework integrates two decision-based methods: the standardized u-control chart and the ABC analysis using fuzzy weights. The control chart, using the students’ ratings, allows the identification of those courses requiring an improvement of teaching quality in the short-medium term. While the ABC analysis uses fuzzy weights to deal with the vagueness and uncertainty of students’ teaching evaluations and provides a risk map of the potential areas of teaching performances improvement in the long term. The proposed framework allows the identification of teaching and course quality aspects that need corrective actions in response to students’ criticisms in accordance with different levels of priority.

This study adopts two methods, commonly used in industrial applications, i.e. the u-control chart and ABC analysis. Combining the results of a literature review on teaching evaluation and the application of these two methods as building blocks for the assessment, a framework to detect potential risks reducing teaching quality in higher education is proposed. The application of the framework is shown through an action-based case study developed in an Italian public university.

The study proposes a framework that combines two methods, i.e. u-control chart and ABC analysis with fuzzy weights, to support the assessment of teaching and course quality. The framework is proposed as an assessment approach of the teaching performance in higher education with the purpose to continuously improve the quality of teaching and courses both in the short, medium and long term.

The study provides an original contribution to the understanding of how to analyze students’ evaluation of teaching performance in order to take proper and timely decisions on corrective actions in response to the need of continuously improving the level of teaching and course quality.

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have constructed their internal evaluation systems to secure teaching quality. This paper aims to analyze teaching quality, HEIs use students to evaluate their professors as they have direct contact with the professors during the whole semester. The authorities hope to receive valuable information, which can be used for many administrative purposes. The bias in the evaluation toward professors’ gender and attractiveness has already been proven. However, there is only limited evidence whether students give higher value to teaching quality over the professors’ personality.

In this paper, the authors go further in the gender-attractiveness evidence and put the evaluation in contrast with professors’ experience, age, etc.

The results indicate that the effect of experience predominates the effect of gender and in some areas also the effect of age. What is more, a semester in which a course is taken also influences the evaluation as different professors’ abilities are required in teaching in a different semester. On the other hand, the results do not fully confirm the effect of gender on the evaluation.

The results reveal that it is important to consider the course structure to assign professors to the right courses.

The purpose of this study is to examine factors which influence responses on open‐ended evaluations of training courses.

Course participants completed open‐ended evaluation forms about their experience on a course. These consisted of 377 senior teachers attending a training programme dealing with child abuse. The course was repeated 17 times. The second training programme concerned teaching skills. This was attended by 231 postgraduates. The course was repeated 25 times.

Responses on open‐ended evaluation forms tended to be favourable with reference to “human related factors” and unfavourable when referring to “hygiene factors”.

It is suggested the way people complete evaluation forms is partly a reflection of their desire to see themselves as acting in a socially desirable manner. Interpretations made from such forms about the effectiveness or merits of any course should take this into account.

Provides a lot more information about open‐ended evaluations than is provided in the research methods texts. It is suggested that those who use open‐ended evaluations need to be particularly careful when they interpret them.

The current evaluation standards in German higher education institutions (HEIs) do not often lead to measurable quality improvement. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate whether Kaizen can improve the quality of teaching. The presented concept illustrates the evaluation of each course unit to continuously encourage quality feedback from the learners and intensify the exchange with lecturers.

Action research is used to combine the continuous improvement philosophy of Kaizen with student course evaluations. A pilot study of the concept provides data from four course cycles to analyze learnings and setbacks.

Learners in the pilot courses welcomed the intense participation and allowed improvements to elements such as course concept, course material, presentation style and content or detail selection. The participation rate declined during each term and was highly influenced by triggers like exam and grade relevance. Kaizen could successfully improve course quality, especially in the first two years of newly developed courses.

The presented results have been collected from one course over four years in one institution. The next stage of research would be the application of the approach in other institutions to validate results and make potential adjustments to the concept, for example, toward continuous learning.

Although course evaluation has become standard in German HEIs, most institutions only implement it once per term or year. This paper discusses a new approach to expedite the evaluation of teaching quality at the point of action (Gemba) to facilitate the short-term reactions of lecturers.

Hong Kong has experienced an economic transformation from a manufacturing‐based to a service‐based economy which has impacted on the demand for manual labour. In 1992, the Employee Retraining Board was set up to provide employees’ retraining programmes (ERP) for unemployed manual workers. It aims to help unemployed manual workers to acquire and develop knowledge, skills and abilities so that they can re‐enter the labour market. This study focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of ERP from the perspectives of training providers designated by Employee Retraining Board to fulfil the above objective. The evaluation of the ERP is based on how the various ERP courses can meet the training objectives, assessment of training needs, design of the ERP, course evaluation, and follow‐up services conducted by the selected training bodies. The overall effectiveness of ERP is found to be low. The indicators participation rate and job placement rate used by the training bodies tend to provide misleading evaluation results to the ERP.

Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) is considered as a powerful pedagogical practice for renewing science teaching in and out of school. However, despite the spread of IBSE projects, solid evaluation practices have not yet been adequately developed. Practitioners are often uncomfortable with the evaluation task, usually spending little time on it and using poor tools to evaluate IBSE activities. To investigate this issue, we developed an analysis of the European project INQUIRE within the framework of Evaluation Capacity Building theory (ECB). INQUIRE fosters IBSE activities in schools and botanic gardens, promoting training for teachers and educators working with pupils aged between 9 and 14. ECB aims at developing evaluation capabilities in order to conduct rigorous evaluation. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, we systematically analysed evaluations used within courses held in Italy over two years (2011–2013). Study findings suggest that the INQUIRE project has helped practitioners to improve their ability to conduct effective evaluations. However, we also identified two concerns, as IBSE practices tend to focus on cognitive rather than cooperative teaching elements, and on summative rather than formative evaluation methods. The following four recommendations are consequently suggested: promoting dynamic assessment processes, ensuring clearness and flexibility, valuing tacit knowledge, and fostering cooperation.

(i) The development of management education The period since World War II has witnessed the rapid development of management education in the United Kingdom. This growth has been particularly pronounced in the past ten to fifteen years. During this time the educational activities of many professional bodies have increased: colleges, polytechnics, and universities have introduced certificate, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate and post‐experience courses, the Industrial Training Act has given an impetus to management education and the business schools have been founded. Management education has become a major activity and a major business.