• The primary focus of the evaluation is to determine the effectiveness of the program in light of the attainment of the IEP priorities and goals.

• Three major purposes of evaluation include systematic assessment and collection of information:
  1. to determine the effectiveness of IEP for the improvement of student learning and attitudes in engineering;

  2. to provide faculty and administration feedback on the success of curricular and instructional strategies related to IEP;

  3. to determine the degree of success of faculty change and program institutionalization related to IEP.

• The evaluation approaches are based on those recommended in the National Science Foundation publication, "User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation: Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education," and the UCLA Center for Evaluation, "Program Evaluation Kit."

• A variety of quantitative and qualitative assessment methods will be used to gather data for evaluating the success and effectiveness of the IEP with students, faculty, and the institution.

• A formative evaluation of the program design and implementation processes as well as a summative evaluation of the program outcomes will be conducted.

• Assessment methods should be aligned with instructional strategies advocated by the IEP goals, i.e., if students are expected to integrate mathematics and science concepts in an engineering design problem, then student achievement measures should include such integrated, interdisciplinary design problems.

• Summative assessments should involve the design problem approach described above. In addition, formative assessments during the coursework should also include design problems so students will have ample experiences in this and other alternative assessment approaches, i.e., videotape portfolios.

• All program participants (i.e., faculty and students) and external evaluators will participate in various assessment components.

• Maricopa's Assessment and Evaluation Plan should embody the general FC: Assessment and Evaluation Plan. Additional evaluation elements that reflect the Maricopa and community college context and mission will drive its Assessment and Evaluation Plan.

• Maricopa's Assessment and Evaluation Plan will be implemented systematically to meet the needs of IEP as well as adhere to the validity and robustness of its evaluation design.

return to:
FC-IEP

next:
evaluation
framework