Self-Assessment and Reflection

 

I had the pleasure of being able to take the evaluation course along with my applied project for the Learning Design and Technology Master’s program at ASU. At first, I felt really overwhelmed but towards the end when my project team in the applied project class was running on fumes, I was able to keep them going as one of our final assignments was to write a final evaluation report. Although they took the course before, it was not fresh in their minds, and we just got done completing a huge project that took a lot of energy. Luckily for them, I took on the headache of taking two courses and the evaluation course was very helpful in refreshing their memories on how to write the report. For me, it did relieve some stress since I was able to navigate through both classes during the final weeks as they both were on the same page, writing an evaluation report.

Based on my self-assessment in the beginning of the course, I gave myself a rating of 4, now I would be at 4.5. The evaluation process that I experienced during this course really gave me a good idea of the differences and similarities that I have experienced in my previous careers. As a quality analyst, we simply analyzed data and made our decisions based on just that, without bringing in key stakeholders to help us better understand. We had to use research and trends to back up the findings and also to make sure that it aligns with the risk mitigation procedures that the organization has in place, which is to keep money flowing in and not out. As a teacher, I built my relationships with my students and families so I can look at the data I get from quizzes, learning management systems, and conversations to help assist my students in meeting their individual goals. In both instances, I have not had to write formal reports for my findings especially in education and in an organization, we had someone tasked with that role. I would say to make myself at an expert level, it would have to be something that I am interested in. I respect the field and the value it gives; however, I don’t think I would like to be in that position. My integrity is very important to me and a part of who I am. I fear that depending on the type of evaluations, it may start to wear down because things are not always black and white.

At the beginning of the evaluation course, context was my weakness and interpersonal skills were my strengths. In order to increase my skills in the context domain, the competency I would need to work on more would be clarifying perspectives, interests, and assumptions, which is 3.7 (American Evaluation Association, 2018). I build confidence in what I am communicating by researching, verifying, and experience. Since each situation is going to be different, I have to be open to working with others to understand their viewpoints and their goals. Recently, in my applied project class, I was working with a sponsor who was very vague in what they wanted, and it was frustrating at first, but it took a lot of research on my end to realize and better understand what they were communicating and asking for. Knowing the right questions is going to come from experience and practicing being fine with reaching out for help from others who may not be in your circle. My strength of interpersonal skills is also my superpower ability. In my point of view, I want to hear everyone’s perspective, their backgrounds, their thoughts to help me create a plan. It seems to be selfish because I need that information to finish my own tasks. I’ve come to find out that in their viewpoint, I was giving them a voice to be a part of the whole process. So, I learned that things that I do are not selfish, it is part of a process that cultivates inclusion, collaboration, and fostering relationships. In my recent experience as a project lead, when my team members talk about appreciating the way our team just flowed and worked well together, I smiled because it was all those little things that I learned in project management that helped assist in the feeling that they had, that made the project flow smoothly.

The domain that surprised me, was the professional practice domain. In any field there should be a point where one would want to seek out training and current up-to-date information that would be relevant to help do their job more effectively. Especially the skills that are needed to be able to promote the good an evaluator can do based on the profession, competency 1.8 (American Evaluation Association, 2018). An evaluator has to continuously learn and reflect so that their reputation will be accepted by those who are seeking evaluations of programs that carry a huge impact based on the findings of the evaluator.

During this class I actually “stalked” a known evaluator to see what kind of published works they were in and watched some videos. In my team for this course, I worked on the qualifications of the bidder in a response to a proposal. It made me curious about what type of credentials and experience an evaluator would need in order to go into the profession. In order to build confidence and trust, it looks like an education, psychology, research, or leadership backgrounds was what I was seeing as a trend in experiences from evaluators in the field. In working with the evaluation process and also looking at my results from the self-assessment, methodology was a neutral domain for me. I would be interested in shadowing a research assistant for evaluations from start to finish. This will allow me to ask questions and get more information about data sources and keeping the integrity of that data. Key questions were important to stay focused in the evaluation process, however, data was just as significant to be able to validate the findings in the final evaluation. I really enjoyed working through two final evaluation reports during the master's program at ASU, as it gives me another level of considerations when I work through my learning designs and the possibility of actually becoming a learning design consultant.

References

American Evaluation Association. (2018). The 2018 AEA evaluator competencies.