Week Nine
With the planning behind us and the implementation in process or complete, how are we doing or how did we do? It's not only a matter of whether the student or client has learned and demonstrated the skills in the objectives, but whether of the process of instruction was effective both while ongoing and after the instruction is complete.
Formative Evaluation: How are we doing?
One must constantly consider how well things are going and there are several things ongoing at the same time. There may be a tendency to think that everything is about how well the learner is learning from their pre-assessment through the instruction and finally as the instruction is complete. But the other process that is ongoing is the development of the instruction and that too should receive assessment through it's process. Was the analysis valid? Does the goal match the analysis? Do the objectives achieve the goal? Do the activities and strategies fulfill the objectives? Are we considering the proper questions to assessment the learners' understnding?
Yes, that evaluation is all about how am I the instruction designer doing while developing the instruction.
Summative Evaluation: How did we do?
Did we just waste time and money generating an ineffective instructional product? Probably not but were we as effective, efficient, cost effective and beneficial over the long term as we had hoped or could have been?