This course is designed to provide an overview of both past and contemporary perspectives on evaluation theory, method, and practice. This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to evaluation fundamentals, including: history, professional standards, leading theories, nature and purposes of evaluation, the logic of evaluation, types of evaluations, and values.

This course is designed to provide a broad – yet rigorous – overview of the tools available to evaluate programs and policies. These tools and methods include randomized control experiments and quasi-experiments, such as difference-in-difference, regression discontinuity, and instrumental variables. Students learn how to interpret evaluation results, read evaluation research critically, and understand the pros/cons of each method.

This course is designed to provide an overview of economic evaluation methods such as benefit-cost analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and cost-utility analysis, including concepts and definitions, analytical frameworks, measurement of cost, placing monetary value on program ingredients, analyzing costs, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis and cost-utility analysis.

This course will present processes and tools to engage in program evaluation planning, design and implementation. The course covers a variety of evaluation approaches and discusses standards of practice, ethical considerations, supporting evaluation use, and continuous learning in evaluation. Topics include: evaluation planning, conducting and managing evaluations; stakeholder engagement strategies; evaluation reporting, evaluation budgeting. Students will cover all phases of an evaluation planning and design including the problem statement, evaluation design, evaluation purpose statements, variable measurement, analysis of results, and identifying the relationship between those results and future program performance.