What Do We Want More Of?
Working Paper:Appreciative Program Evaluation
Author: Karen E. Norum , Marcy Wells , Chris A. Geary
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, SD United States
07/15/2001
Annotation: In Spring 2001, the Technology for Training and Development Division at the University of South Dakota assessed the status of the current degree offerings and programs.
At this point, Master's and Specialist degrees had been officially offered for two years. The Master's degree had two tracks within it: one with a K-12 emphasis and one with a Training and Development emphasis.
The program was created to appeal to both K-12 teachers and those from non-school settings. K-12 students might be attracted to the program to sharpen their skills in technology to prepare for becoming technology coordinators in their schools or simply to learn better how to integrate technology into their curriculum.
Students in the Training and Development track might be attracted to gain skills to become instructional designers, trainers, or organizational development specialists in business and industry.
At this two-year mark, the faculty determined an
assessment of the status of the program offerings
was in order. They sensed some confusion on the
part of students as to what the program was really about. Was it technology skill development? Was it more conceptual than that? What did it mean to develop leaders in the appropriate use of technology in school and non-school settings?
Eight students currently enrolled in courses were
recruited to help with this project. The assessment was an appreciative inquiry: an inquiry to discover what was working well in the program offerings and how the offerings could be improved (Cooperrider & Whitney, 1999).
It was also an action research project: the emphasis was on developing practical knowledge while engaging stakeholders (students) in the questioning, collection of data to address those questions, and sensemaking of the data collected (Reason & Bradbury, 2001). The project employed qualitative research methods.
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