• Question 1
Needs Grading

Define Evaluation and provide at least two reasons why HRD practitioners should evaluate individuals, programs, processes, change initiatives, and/or interventions? Please limit your narrative to six sentences maximum.
Answer
Selected Answer: Evaluation is an applied inquiry process for collecting and synthesizing evidence that culminates about the state of affairs, value, merti, worth, significance or quality of a program, product, person, policy, proposal, or plan.Conclusions in evaluations encompass both empirical aspect and normative aspect. some of the reasons why we evaluate are that evaluations ensure quality, they contribute to the increased organization members’ knowledge, and they help plan and deliver organizational initiatives.

• Question 2
Needs Grading

According to Knowles, Swanson and Holton (1998) “HRD is a process of developing and/or unleashing human expertise through organizational development and personnel training and development for the purpose of improving performance at the work process and individual level” (p. 120). HRD is a process with a focus on learning and a goal of performance improvement (Gilley, Eggland, & Gilley, 2002). In consideration of these facts what is the connection of HRD to evaluation?
Answer
Selected Answer: HRD has been defined as a process of facilitation organizational learning, performance, and change through organized initiatives and management actions for the purpose of enhancing an organization’s performace capacity, capability, competitive readiness and renewal. and in order for HRD to be successful in this mission, it has to use and plan for evaluations in order to get information from their employees and everything affecting the organizational performance. Getting information from those parties through evaluations, for example after a training program, is very crucial to the success of the whole HRD intervention where the four levels of kirkpatrick are to be used to assess the reaction, the learning, the change in behavior, and the overall results on the organization. The evaluations results should be communicated so that other deficiencies are detected for futher interventions or not. If any deficiencies in the learning, performace, or results are detected, then the HRD intervenes to find out another solution either by instructional design or non instructional design interventions that will be followed up by evaluations again. This is an ongoing process and it should always be ongoing for the longlasting success of organizations.

• Question 3
Needs Grading

In five sentences or less describe how research differs from evaluation.
Answer
Selected Answer: Research and evaluation differ in several aspects. the first aspect is that the evaluation purpose is to provide information for decision making and learning, while the research purpose is to develop new knowledge. The evaluation’s audience are internal and external clients, on the other hand, the research audience are mainly other researchers. When it comes to the focus of the study, the evaluation identifies background of the evaluand, evaluation rationale, and purpose, and the research develops a problem statement. And on the results report section, the evaluation makes evaluative conclusions and reports to its clients, while reseach makes empirical conclusions and reports results to other researchers and practitioners.

• Question 7
Needs Grading

State and describe the four levels of the Kirkpatrick Four-Level Evaluation Model. Provide at least one example (a short statement) of how each level is used to determine the value of an evaluand (object, personal performance, intervention, etc).
Answer
Selected Answer: the four levels of Kirkpatricks evaluation model are:
LEVEL 1 = Reaction: it involves gathering reactions to determine if participants enjoyed the training, if the training environment was suitable and comfortable, and if the trainers were capable and credible. Ex: after the delivery of a customer service training, the trainees will have to fill out a survey to express their reaction about the training they had.
LEVEL2= Learning: is the extent to which the participants have improved or increased their knowledge or skills as a results of the training. Ex: after the customer service training, the trainees will receive a post test to test their new knowledge acquisition.
LEVEL3= Behavior: is to seek to determine the extent to which trainees are using or transfering the newly learned knowledge and behaviors back on the job.Ex: after the customer service training, the supervisor will watch closely the trainees and evaluate the extent to which they are using good customer service.
LEVEL4= Results: is the extent to which training has affected business results or has contributed to the achievement of organizational goals. Ex: after the customer service training delivery, the customers complaints rate has decreased.

• Question 8
Needs Grading

What is it about evaluation that may cause some to be leery of formal evaluation processes?
Answer
Selected Answer: When we consider that evaluation frequently surfaces conflict in values and interests, and that evaluation often leads to changes that some may or may not welcome, we can appreciate why some evaluations may be leery of formal processes.

• Question 11
Needs Grading

Pretend you are involved in the evaluation of an organization’s safety program. The make-believe company is known by name as Technology Services of America (TSA). The basic safety program is taught in two modules during the first six months of a new hires employment. Transfer of learning support is absent due to a lack of resources. Thus, the greater concern for TSA is that attendees learn and implement new behaviors while manufacturing computer components that contain toxic substances. You elected to provide training for only the treatment group (group that was trained) and to gather data from the control group and the treatment group prior to and after the first module. So, what is the name of this evaluation design and what are its strengths and weaknesses? Please state at least 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of this evaluation design methodology.
Answer
Selected Answer: The evaluation design to be used in this case is the Pretest Posttest Control Group Design.
Its strenghts are:
1- provides some control for the effects of history and maturation because the use of a control group
2- provides evidence over time
3- measures actual attitudes, knowledge, and skills prior to the intervention
4- allows for comparison of actual pretest and post test data
Its weaknesses are:
1- May require more resources because of repeated data collection efforts
2- changes may be the result of the repeated data collection because of testing or instrumentation effects
3- may experience attrition or loss of people from the sample
4- may have groups that are not similar because of unequal attrition
5- may be difficult or impossible to obtain a control group

• Question 13
Needs Grading

Why should the evaluator consider utilizing an evaluation design to gather both qualitative and quantitative data?

Answer
Selected Answer: a mixed method design uses both qualitative and quantitative data. it allows evaluator to examine questions, and employing both approaches can help decision makers get the hard numbers they need, while enabling the evaluation to interact with the participants to experience the culture.