Interactive Evaluation Practice

Taking an applied approach, this book provides readers with specific interactive skills needed in different evaluation settings and contexts. The authors illustrate multiple options for developing skills and choosing strategies, systematically highlighting the evaluator's three roles as decision maker, actor, and reflective practitioner. Case studies and interactive examples stimulate thinking about how to apply interactive skills across a variety of evaluation situations.

You've taken your introduction to evaluation course and are about to do your first evaluation project. Where do you begin? Interactive Evaluation Practice: Managing the Interpersonal Dynamics of Program Evaluation helps bridge the gap between the theory of evaluation and its practice, giving students the specific skills they need to use in different evaluation settings. Jean A. King and Laurie Stevahn present readers with three organizing frameworks (derived from social interdependence theory from social psychology, evaluation use research, and the evaluation capacity building literature) for thinking about evaluation practice. These frameworks help readers track the various skills or strategies to use for distinctive evaluation situations. In addition, the authors provide explicit advice about how to solve specific evaluation problems. Numerous examples throughout the text bring interactive practice to life in a variety of settings.

You've taken your introduction to evaluation course and are about to do your first evaluation project. Where do you begin? Interactive Evaluation Practice: Managing the Interpersonal Dynamics of Program Evaluation helps bridge the gap between the theory of evaluation and its practice, giving students the specific skills they need to use in different evaluation settings. Jean A. King and Laurie Stevahn present readers with three organizing frameworks (derived from social interdependence theory from social psychology, evaluation use research, and the evaluation capacity building literature) for thinking about evaluation practice. These frameworks help readers track the various skills or strategies to use for distinctive evaluation situations. In addition, the authors provide explicit advice about how to solve specific evaluation problems. Numerous examples throughout the text bring interactive practice to life in a variety of settings.

Join the conversation between evaluation and facilitation. This issue explores the interplay between the two and how one practice can inform the other. The authors represent both the evaluation and facilitation fields, describing underlying concepts that inform their practices, the competencies they seek to develop, the choices they make about facilitation in the work they do, and how they gauge success. This issue brings together topics meant to stimulate the curiosity of evaluators and facilitators and encourage reflection on their work and the skills needed to carry it out. This is the 149th issue in the New Directions for Evaluation series from Jossey-Bass. It is an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

The use of interactive technology in the arts has changed the audience from viewer to participant and in doing so is transforming the nature of experience. From visual and sound art to performance and gaming, the boundaries of what is possible for creation, curating, production and distribution are continually extending. As a consequence, we need to reconsider the way in which these practices are evaluated. Interactive Experience in the Digital Age explores diverse ways of creating and evaluating interactive digital art through the eyes of the practitioners who are embedding evaluation in their creative process as a way of revealing and enhancing their practice. It draws on research methods from other disciplines such as interaction design, human-computer interaction and practice-based research more generally and adapts them to develop new strategies and techniques for how we reflect upon and assess value in the creation and experience of interactive art. With contributions from artists, scientists, curators, entrepreneurs and designers engaged in the creative arts, this book is an invaluable resource for both researchers and practitioners, working in this emerging field.

Evaluating Children's Interactive Products directly addresses the need to ensure that interactive products designed for children — whether toys, games, educational products, or websites — are safe, effective, and entertaining. It presents an essential background in child development and child psychology, particularly as they relate to technology; captures best practices for observing and surveying children, training evaluators, and capturing the child user experience using audio and visual technology; and examines ethical and legal issues involved in working with children and offers guidelines for effective risk management. Based on the authors' workshops, conference courses, and own design experience and research, this highly practical book reads like a handbook, while being thoroughly grounded in the latest research. Throughout, the authors illustrate techniques and principles with numerous mini case studies and highlight practical information in tips and exercises and conclude with three in-depth case studies. This book is recommended for usability experts, product developers, and researchers in the field. * Presents an essential background in child development and child psychology, particularly as they relate to technology. * Captures best practices for observing and surveying children, training evaluators, and capturing the child user experience using audio and visual technology. * Examines ethical and legal issues involved in working with children and offers guidelines for effective risk management.

This book offers a straightforward, practical introduction to evaluation for beginners and practitioners. It shows how to identify appropriate forms and approaches, using an original framework. The authors examine the role of evaluation in program development, and offer techniques for involving stakeholders in the planning process and for disseminating the evaluation findings. They use references to recent research and international examples.