Project Overview



As part of the Evaluation and Change in the ID Process (R561) class, we had to undertake an evaluation project.  Our team comprised of 4 graduate students approached the Office of Women Affairs (OWA) at Indiana University to serve as our client.  Specifically, OWA was interested in evaluating the effectiveness of their annual Women in Science Research Conference (WISRC) beyond the traditional post-conference surveys.  Hence our team distilled that WISRC's purpose lies in promoting female students' participation in research.  With this in mind, our team then developed three key evaluation questions, which were aimed at higher levels of evaluation (Kirkpatrick's levels 2 and 3).  Following this, our team then set about conducting content analysis, planning and executing observations during the conference, reviewing participants' surveys and conducting follow-up interviews.



Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, our team then summarized our findings, highlighting the positives as well as the negatives.  Through this effort, our team reported that there was significant quantitative data to suggest that the conference achieved its aim of promoting female participation in research.  However, the qualitative analysis revealed that participants were ambivalent over whether there was significant improvement in organization over previous years' conferences.  At the same time, our team conducted cause analysis in an attempt to find the root causes of some of the problems faced and subsequently made recommendations on how to potentially avoid or overcome them in the future.