BSU EDTECH Student Blog

Evaluation and Research Methodology

During the last few weeks, I’ve learned about evaluation and research methodology and associated terminology.  In the past, while reading evaluation and research reports, I would read the first sections, including the summary, purpose and background, and skip over the sections containing sampling details and evaluation design.  I would also skim the results section and focus my reading on the discussion and conclusion sections.  I often felt disappointed because I didn’t learn anything important in the last sections that was not described in the summary or abstract.

I usually skipped the methodology and data analysis sections of the reports because I did not have a full understanding of the terms used, nor an appreciation for the design efforts.  When I read a research report now, I’ll expect to find details based on hard data, and how the data was collected and analyzed.  I’l be able to better judge the quality of the reports due to my increased understanding of the terminology and design structures commonly used in evaluation and research.  I have a better understanding of the nuances of evaluation vocabulary and I have learned the meanings of words I was unfamiliar with like emic, etic and triangulation.

The information I learned will be particularly valuable if I become involved in grant writing.  During my first term as a M.ET student, I wrote a NSF grant proposal as a project for EDTECH 551, and depended on the prime investigator to write the evaluation design, which I was unqualified to create.  In the end, the proposal was not submitted, and the lack of a well-designed evaluation plan played a role.  The professor did not have or make the time to create an evaluation design.  With my new knowledge, I could write a rough draft of a design and leave the details to a Ph.D.  I will also have improved communication when discussing research methodology, evaluation terminology, and statistical reports.

An interesting thing I’ve discovered is that this course seems to be filling some gaps in my knowledge that I would have liked to learn in a research methodology course.  Many master level programs and career positions require a research methodology course.  However, I was advised that unless I planned to pursue a Ph.D, I would be just as well off taking practitioner courses like online teaching and course design as electives.  Going forward, I’d like to know which skills are taught in a research methodology course that are not taught in this evaluation course.  I want to know what I don’t know.