This online course is designed to provide students with a practical understanding of the processes involved in communication program evaluation and assessment in public and non-profit settings. The goal is to equip participants with the skills necessary to effectively assess, evaluate, and ultimately improve the communication programs in which they may be involved. In this course, communication programs are taken to include research initiatives, participatory communication projects, training services, and community mobilization efforts and programs.

Participants will be equipped with techniques and skills to successfully plan and implement evaluation and assessment programs for varied social development programs. Such skills are broadly taxonomized into planning, implementation, and utilization skills. Examples of these include assessing needs of target communities, specifying goals and objectives of evaluation and assessment activities, assessing feasibility of evaluation and assessment activities, analyzing feedback from participants in relevant communities, conducting evaluations and assessments in an ethical manner, and communicating evaluation and assessment findings with stakeholders and community members. In addition, participants can expect to develop practical skills such as selecting appropriate methods of data collection, facilitating the application and use of these methods, reviewing established standards for effective evaluation as well as developing contextually suitable criteria for effective evaluation.

The course will also address the challenges presented by the use of different evaluation paradigms i.e., the traditional social scientific methods and the recent participatory methods of evaluation and assessment. The course will take a holistic approach to evaluation and assessment by covering all phases of evaluation from pre-project to replication and extension of evaluation and assessment programs. The course will also equip participants with the skills to conduct different types of evaluation including formative, process, outcome, and impact evaluation.

Emphasis will be placed on highlighting practical skills that development professionals need in communication program evaluation and assessment. Through discussion of the conceptual bases on which evaluation and assessment designs and methods are based, through analysis of case studies from selected development programs, and through hands-on practice with designing evaluation and assessment programs participants will be asked to think conceptually, practically, and critically about the process of program evaluation and assessment.

Learing Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Show a thorough understanding of theories and concepts of evaluation.
• Critically evaluate hypothetical and real-life programs.
• Develop, implement, and assess evaluation and assessment measures, methods, and analysis techniques leading to effective program evaluation and assessment.
• Use multiple approaches, including participatory processes in project evaluation.
• Assess the fit of specific evaluation and assessment techniques and methods to varying contexts and projects.
• Professionally communicate the findings of program evaluations.
• Assess the impact of communication programs in various development contexts.
• Show how to effectively utilize the results of assessment and evaluation.