Search results

21 – 30 of over 182000
Book part
Publication date: 17 December 2016

Anne T. Vo

If institutions of higher education are to remain at the forefront of the knowledge-generating enterprise, the nature of graduate-level teaching must be critically examined…

Abstract

If institutions of higher education are to remain at the forefront of the knowledge-generating enterprise, the nature of graduate-level teaching must be critically examined. Exploring the manner in which discussion is facilitated in a seminar-like context offers one avenue for attaining this understanding. This study aims to shed light on the prevalence, purpose, and form of discussion facilitation practices that were observed in a small group setting within a social science academic program at a large Southern California university. An exploratory, embedded case study was conducted over approximately 24 weeks using ethnographic and conversation analytic methods. Data sources consisted of ethnographic field notes, audio recordings of meetings, transcripts from those recordings, and artifacts, including literature used during each session. Results suggest that facilitating small group discussions requires balancing focus on the selected text and participant engagement, a diverse set of facilitation practices, and use of different strategies (or micro-avenues) to arrive at the same end. Study findings emphasize the importance of intersubjectivity and form versus function of speech in an educational environment. What is said and how it is said both have great implications for shared learning and understanding. Adaptability of mixed qualitative methods in this study demonstrates the potential of ethnography and conversation analysis as complementary approaches for understanding the functional nature of talk and interaction. Thus, the criteria for rigorous qualitative research, the view that ethnography and conversation analysis do not mix, and the under-valuing of critical multiplism in research need to be re-examined.

Details

New Directions in Educational Ethnography
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-623-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 August 2020

Ali Mohammad Soltani, Seyed Habibollah Tabatabaeian, Payam Hanafizadeh and Jahanyar Bamdadsoofi

The purpose of this paper is to suggest indicators for evaluating Iran national nanotechnology plan at the policy and program levels. Governments are required to evaluate their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to suggest indicators for evaluating Iran national nanotechnology plan at the policy and program levels. Governments are required to evaluate their policies to be accountable to their audience and to improve their policies. The evaluation of nanotechnology policies both in academic and governmental institutions has been mainly confined to measuring the research and development outputs, while explicit models are required for evaluating national nanotechnology policies and programs. In other words, although policies are translated into several activities, it does not mean that the evaluation of activities results in holistic policy evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach

The present research uses a qualitative method to explore the process of developing a model for assessing nanotechnology policymaking in Iran. Expert opinions have been collected and analyzed by using local and international surveys to validate different elements of the model.

Findings

The model includes the evaluation time-frame, criteria and indicators for policy and program levels. Assessment at program and policy levels, as distinct from activity evaluation, measures the ultimate objectives of a policy intervention, based on which the outcome and impact indicators should be developed. This paper argues that the Iran national nanotechnology policy should be evaluated and revised triennially based on the model in which 46 outcome and impact indicators are included under three general criteria of appropriateness, efficiency and effectiveness. A number of these indicators should be evaluated annually or biannually.

Originality/value

The evaluation of nanotechnology plans has been mainly limited to assessing the research and development outputs that are related to the activity level. The main value of this work is developing outcome and impact indicators that are related to policy and program levels.

Details

Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4620

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 November 2018

Leonor Gaspar Pinto and Paula Ochôa

The purpose of this paper is to discuss emerging practices in open evaluation, namely, the concept of co-evaluation and how research on evaluation developed within information…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss emerging practices in open evaluation, namely, the concept of co-evaluation and how research on evaluation developed within information science can contribute to enhance stakeholders and citizens’ involvement in open science.

Design/methodology/approach

A meta-evaluative and transdisciplinary approach – directed toward the intersection between information science, evaluation, competences management, sustainability transitions management and participatory methodologies – provided the basis for the identification and subsequent reflection on the levels of stakeholder participation embedded into ISO 16439’s (2014) methods for assessing the impact of libraries and on the domains and competences to be mobilized for (co)evaluation. The contributions of Engaged 2020 Action Catalogue, as well as several taxonomies of evaluator competences and the Council of Europe’s (2016) conceptual model of competences for a democratic culture were particularly relevant for this (re)construction process.

Findings

Two results of the line of research carried out since 2012 at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa (Portugal) can significantly contribute to improve stakeholders’ participation in Open Science: ISO 16439’s systematization of methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries and the (co-)evaluation competency framework.

Originality/value

This paper presents the transdisciplinary concept of co-evaluation and examines the current epistemological challenges to science by analyzing the general tendency to openness through the lens of research on evaluation and participatory methods developed within information science.

Details

Performance Measurement and Metrics, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-8047

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Review of Marketing Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-726-1

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2017

Ansgar Zerfass, Dejan Verčič and Sophia Charlotte Volk

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status quo of communication evaluation and measurement practices in communication departments of companies, non-profits, and other…

3198

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status quo of communication evaluation and measurement practices in communication departments of companies, non-profits, and other organizations across Europe.

Design/methodology/approach

The study argues that the challenge to conduct reliable measurement is threefold: first, communication professionals have to understand and develop skills how to conduct evaluation; second, they have to evaluate whether communication activities have reached those goals in practice; and finally, they have to use those insights to advance and manage their future activities. These aspects are elaborated in the literature review. A quantitative survey of 1,601 professionals from 40 European countries was conducted to research prerequisites, implementation and benefits of communication measurement and compare practices across types of organizations.

Findings

Although robust knowledge of empirical research methods and their application for measuring communication effects is indispensable, many practitioners lack the necessary expertise to conduct reliable evaluation and measurement. Communication departments seldom measure communication effects on stakeholders and organizational goals. Many remain focused on media and channels. Last but not least, organizations do not fully exploit the potential of measurement data for strategically planning future communication activities.

Practical implications

The findings highlight the need to reconsider current education and training in communication research methods and their application in corporate practice. Knowledge about conducting applied research is as important as asking meaningful questions and using insights for management decisions in a corporate environment. Evaluation methods are often discussed, but individual skills and the organizational use of insights are important as well. This might be tackled through additional training in social science research techniques, sophisticated valuation methods, and decision making.

Originality/value

The large-scale study shows that communication measurement practices are still in a nascent stage. Joint efforts of academics and professional associations have not really changed the situation until now. The three dimensions used in this research (skills, practices, and utilization) can be used to assess the measurement readiness of individual organizations, to conduct further research in other regions, and to identify future challenges for advancing the field.

Details

Corporate Communications: An International Journal, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-3289

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 November 2016

Hank C. Alewine and Timothy C. Miller

This study explores how balanced scorecard format and reputation from environmental performances interact to influence performance evaluations.

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores how balanced scorecard format and reputation from environmental performances interact to influence performance evaluations.

Methodology/approach

Two general options exist for inserting environmental measures into a scorecard: embedded among the four traditional perspectives or grouped in a fifth perspective. Prior balanced scorecard research also assumes negative past environmental performances. In such settings, and when low management communication levels exist on the importance of environmental strategic objectives (a common practitioner scenario), environmental measures receive less decision weight when they are grouped in a fifth scorecard perspective. However, a positive environmental reputation would generate loss aversion concerns with reputation, leading to more decision weight given to environmental measures. Participants (N=138) evaluated performances with scorecards in an experimental design that manipulates scorecard format (four, five-perspectives) and past environmental performance operationalizing reputation (positive, negative).

Findings

The environmental reputation valence’s impact is more (less) pronounced when environmental measures are grouped (embedded) in a fifth perspective (among the four traditional perspectives), when the environmental feature of the measures is more (less) salient.

Research limitations/implications

Findings provide the literature with original empirical results that support the popular, but often anecdotal, position of advocating a fifth perspective for environmental measures to help emphasize and promote environmental stewardship within an entity when common low management communication levels exist. Specifically, when positive past environmental performances exist, entities may choose to group environmental performance measures together in a fifth scorecard perspective without risking those measures receiving the discounted decision weight indicated in prior studies.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 September 2022

Sara Bolduc, John Knox and E. Barrett Ristroph

This article considers how the evaluation of research teams can better account for the challenges of transdisciplinarity, including their larger team size and more diverse and…

Abstract

Purpose

This article considers how the evaluation of research teams can better account for the challenges of transdisciplinarity, including their larger team size and more diverse and permeable membership, as well as the tensions between institutional pressures on individuals to publish and team goals.

Design/methodology/approach

An evaluation team was retained from 2015 to 2020 to conduct a comprehensive external evaluation of a five-year EPSCoR-funded program undertaken by a transdisciplinary research team. The formative portion of the evaluation involved monitoring the program’s developmental progress, while the summative portion tracked observable program outputs and outcomes as evidence of progress toward short- and long-term goals. The evaluation team systematically reviewed internal assessments and gathered additional data for an external assessment via periodic participation in team meetings, participant interviews and an online formative team survey (starting in Year 2).

Findings

Survey participants had a better understanding of the project’s “Goals and Vision” compared to other aspects. “Work Roles,” and particularly the timeliness of decision-making, were perceived to be a “Big Problem,” specifically in regard to heavy travel by key managers/leadership. For “Communication Channels,” Year 2 tensions included differing views on the extent to which management should be collaborative versus “hierarchical.” These concerns about communication demonstrate that differences in language, culture or status impact the efficiency and working relationship of the team. “Authorship Credit/Intellectual Property” was raised most consistently each year as an area of concern.

Originality/value

The study involves the use of a unique survey approach.

Details

Higher Education Evaluation and Development, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-5789

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 October 2020

Younghee Noh and Sang-Yup Lee

The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation index. For this, questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the educational value of the library. This study encourages…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation index. For this, questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the educational value of the library. This study encourages librarians and users to gain confidence in the educational benefits of the library and enables the students and general users to capture and appreciate the educational presence of the library, thereby contributing to the increase of activity in libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

To develop an evaluation index for assessing the educational value of the library, domestic and foreign papers were collectively gathered and analyzed to develop a preliminary evaluation index. Next, ten experts were selected and the three-step Delphi method was used to develop a final evaluation index. Questionnaires were developed based on the final evaluation index, and librarians and users of 100 public libraries were asked to assess educational values of their respective libraries. In Korea, there are 978 public libraries (as of 2015), and in this study, 10% of the public libraries were selected. To select the libraries, every tenth library was chosen from the data of the national library statistics system.

Findings

By presenting the educational value of the library, this study encourages libraries to improve their services and increases library usage. The educational value has been divided into five evaluation areas of literacy improvement; learning and educational support; research support and information resources provision; improvement of the quality of educational environment and education; and strengthening of competency. The strengthening of competency evaluation areas were the highest at 3.87, and those of research support and the information resources provision were the lowest at 3.63. Statistical analysis comparing responses by social status, gender, age and number of visits revealed that the majority (23 of 39) of significant differences found occurred between librarians and users.

Practical implications

The evaluation indicator developed in this research is expected to be a basic tool that can be applied to public libraries as well as other types of libraries. In addition, the evaluation indicator developed in this research can be applied to nonprofit organizations and this research is expected to have an educational impact as a study that evaluates and presents the educational values of libraries. In addition, because the research was conducted in a personal context, the questionnaire survey was administered in 100 libraries with limitations among the public libraries nationwide. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the educational value of libraries of other kinds such as university libraries, school libraries and specialized libraries, using the indicator developed in this research.

Social implications

The biggest feat the present study achieved is the development of the evaluating indicator of the educational value of libraries. As examined in previous researches, the studies on the value of libraries are partly being executed but such studies tend to be mostly ones about such an institute’s economic merits. However, a library is not evaluated only by its financial significance but by its cultural, social and educational prominence. The present research can be extremely meaningful in that within it, the authors endeavor to estimate a library’s educational value, considering the countless papers mentioning the value of similar establishments within and outside Korea, and based on such data produce an indicator to evaluate the educational value of such institutes. Also, in the present research, it is noteworthy that the developed indicator is verified while at the same time the authors apply it in real life to estimate the educational value of such a hub for books. For such an application, the authors conducted a survey on 100 Korean public libraries, amounting to 10% of all the libraries in Korea, and the research is meaningful in that it even compared and analyzed the common notions of the librarians and users. Finally, the educational value of libraries is proven through such a process. It can be seen that the users evaluate that a library contributes to the improvement of literacy on the part of the user, and by supporting studies, education, research and academic activities adds to the user’s reading ability, character and creativity. To recount the specifics, it can be seen that they think that such an establishment heightens reading ability and results, contributes to continuing education and improves emotional stability. Such a research result is seen to be of particular use for the executive team of a library while they secure the budget or plan services to better user satisfaction with the value judgment of libraries at its basis.

Originality/value

There is very little research conducted on the educational influence or value of the library, although they are referred to in part when overall value of the library is discussed. Therefore, research that focuses on the educational value of the library is needed. In this respect, this research is meaningful; the evaluation index developed in this research is a basic tool that can be applied to all public libraries as well as other types of libraries. Furthermore, the evaluation index developed in this study may also be applied to nonprofit organizations, such as libraries, and will likely have a social impact as research that evaluates and presents the educational value of the library.

Details

The Electronic Library , vol. 38 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 November 2023

Marko Niemimaa

The purpose of this research is to study how compliance evaluation becomes performed in practice. Compliance evaluation is a common practice among organizations that need to…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to study how compliance evaluation becomes performed in practice. Compliance evaluation is a common practice among organizations that need to evaluate their posture against a set of criteria (e.g. a standard, legislative framework and “best practices”). The results of these evaluations have significant importance for organizations, especially in the context of information security and continuity. The author argues that how these evaluations become performed is not merely a “social” activity but shaped by the materiality of the evaluation criteria

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopt a sociomaterial practice-based view to study the compliance evaluation through in situ participant observations from compliance evaluation workshops to evaluate organizational compliance against a information security and business continuity criteria. The empirical material was analyzed to construct vignettes that serve to illustrate the practice of compliance evaluation.

Findings

The research analysis shows how the information security and business continuity criteria themselves partake in the compliance evaluations by operating through (ventriloqually) the evaluators on three strata: the material, the textual and the structural. The author also provides a conceptualization of a hybrid agency.

Originality/value

This research contributes to lack of studies on the organizational-level compliance. Further, the research is an original contribution to information security and business continuity management by focusing on the practices of compliance evaluation. Further, the research has theoretical novelty by adopting the ventriloqual agency as a hybrid agency to study the sociomateriality of a phenomenon.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 January 2021

Dana M. Griggs and Mindy Crain-Dorough

The purposes of this paper are to provide a description of AI and to document and compare two applications of AI, one in program evaluation and another in an applied research

Abstract

Purpose

The purposes of this paper are to provide a description of AI and to document and compare two applications of AI, one in program evaluation and another in an applied research study.

Design/methodology/approach

Focus groups, interviews and observations were used to gather rich qualitative data which was used to detail Appreciative Inquiry's value in evaluation and research.

Findings

AI aided the researcher in connecting with the participants and valuing what they shared. In both studies, the use of AI amassed information that answered the research questions, provided a rich description of the context and findings, and led to data saturation. The authors describe and compare experiences with two applications of AI: program evaluation and a research study. This paper contributes further understanding of the use of AI in public education institutions. The researchers also explore the efficacy of using AI in qualitative research and recommend its use for multiple purposes.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations occurred in the AI-Design Stage by using a positive viewpoint and because both program and partnership studied were new with limited data to use for designing a better future. So, the authors recommend a revisit of both studies through the same 4D Model.

Practical implications

This manuscript shows that AI is useful for evaluation and research. It amplifies the participants' voices through favorite stories and successes. AI has many undiscovered uses.

Social implications

Through the use of AI the authors can: improve theoretical perspectives; conduct research that yields more authentic data; enable participants to deeply reflect on their practice and feel empowered; and ultimately impact and improve the world.

Originality/value

AI is presented as an evaluation tool for a high-school program and as a research approach identifying strengths and perceptions of an educational partnership. In both studies, AI crumbled the walls that are often erected by interviewees when expecting to justify or defend decisions and actions. This paper contributes further understanding of the use of AI in public education institutions.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

21 – 30 of over 182000