Park and Recreation professionals strive to develop programming that will positively influence community members’ lives in predetermined ways. Understanding how to measure the implementation and impacts of these programs is a critical skill for continuous improvement and for advocating for the necessary resources to sustain these important contributions to thriving communities. This certificate is designed to help park and recreation professionals develop or strengthen an “evaluation mindset.” It will guide participants through planning effective program evaluations using best practices and creativity. Broken into four modules, participants can expect to gain the following knowledge:
Module 1: Getting Ready for Evaluation
Learn common evaluation terms and reflect on your own perspectives about evaluation. Examine case studies of relevant program evaluation scenarios and begin crafting an evaluation plan for your own program while assessing your agency’s evaluation-readiness.
Module 2: What are you Evaluating?
Continue to dive more deeply into understanding the crucial sections to include in an evaluation plan. Practice writing short-, medium-, and long-term SMART outcomes and connect program activities to those outcomes. Explore examples of evaluation plan components in relevant case studies and continue developing these components in your evaluation plan.
Module 3: Evaluation Questions
Delve deeply into best practices for developing clear and effective evaluation questions that will measure implementation and impact of a program. Apply these principles by reviewing case studies and crafting evaluation questions for your own program in your evaluation plan.
Module 4: What are you asking, and how?
Explore the advantages and disadvantages of common data collection methods and add data collection details to your program’s evaluation plan. Learn tips and tricks for effective survey questions and practice through crafting survey questions. Discover innovative methods for collecting data and consider how these methods may enhance the evaluation experience for participants.
By completing this certificate, participants will earn 0.7 CEUs and receive a certificate of completion.
CEU: 0.7