Program Evaluation: The Board Game

Abstract

This section includes articles that focus on teaching of, and training in, evaluation. Articles may address evaluation teaching and training in diverse environments, including K through 12, corporate, government, nonprofit, or community settings, in addition to more traditional academic settings. Articles might also identify strategies and outcomes of teaching evaluation to community and agency members. A variety of formats are welcome, including case studies, interviews, and more traditional articles. Research on the teaching of evaluation is especially welcome. In general, manuscripts for this section should range from 5 to 20 pages in length, although shorter or longer papers will be considered. All manuscripts will be peer reviewed, with as timely a review process as we can achieve. If you have any questions or suggestions about topics you would like to see addressed in this section or would like to chat about an idea you are considering for submission, feel free to call Hallie Preskill, the section editor, at (909) Abstract: The field of program evaluation lacks interactive teaching tools. To address this pedagogical issue, the authors developed a collaborative learning technique called Program Evaluation: The Board Game. The authors present the game and its development in this practitioner-oriented article. The evaluation board game is an adaptable teaching tool designed to familiarize players with basic history, theories, approaches, and tasks associated with conducting program evaluations. The basis of the game design came from an evaluation skills taxonomy and a review of popular texts in the evaluation field. The authors piloted the game and administered a postgame survey to assess its effectiveness. Results of the survey provided specific information about how the game contributed to learning and led to significant modifications and improvements in the game. The authors' experience demonstrates that the board game can generate useful discussion about evaluation issues and teach foundational knowledge in the program evaluation field.

Advancing Evaluation Practice With Serious Games

“…There is a dearth of literature on the use of games for policy and program evaluation. The isolated examples focus mainly on training applications, leaving out consideration of how games might be employed to improve inclusion and exploration of complexity in evaluation practice (Febey & Coyne, 2007;Olejniczak, 2017).…”

The Game of Knowledge Brokering

“…280-281), the use of games has been very rare and reported only incidentally (Febey & Coyne, 2007;Patton, 2008). This article addresses this knowledge gap.…”

Una experiencia de aprendizaje universitario mediante juegos de torneo en clase

“…Para contrastar la eficacia del juego en la consecución del objetivo del cambio en la estrategia de estudio utilizamos, al igual que Febey y Coyne (2007), una encuesta de opinión sobre la percepción de los estudiantes al respecto. Asimismo, dado que la literatura no es concluyente en cuanto a si los juegos mejoran los resultados académicos respecto al sistema de aprendizaje tradicional, testamos la mejora de competencias personales y de rendimiento académico.…”