Short, Basic, but Usable: On Logic Models

It's basic but basic is good. The evaluation firm Usable Knowledge, which serves the nonprofit world, maintains its 2006 narrated slideshow called Logic Model Tutorial on its web site.

At just under 15 minutes, the tutorial makes the lesson easy to make the time for. The main web site is actually a blog, with entries as recent as Spring 2010.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

AEA Blog: Daily in 2010

To my knowledge, no calendar publisher has created a desk pad for An Eval Tip a Day for 2010. But AEA did. Online.

AEA365A Tip-a-Day by and for Evaluators is a daily blog that's made it through the halfway point for 2010. As you might guess from the title, the blog is written by a large number of people. Contributions come from literally around the world although you'll pick up on some regular posts by AEA staff, as well.

Go to the Archive to scan the titles. That's how I found Canadian social researcher Linda Lee's essay on use of visual methods in evaluation. (See the June 17 entry on the blog site.) Of course, you can also simply keep up with AEA365. Every day.

The blog is published by the American Evaluation Association (AEA).

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.

Tech Note: Support for College Readiness and Completion

Proposals forms are not available yet, but EDUCAUSE, the Gates Foundation, and a couple of other partners promise to support "islands of innovation" in the goal to utilize technology for college success—in terms of college readiness and college completion. That's the goal of the Next Gen Learning Challenges. Projects that demonstrate promise will then be "scaled," and presumably help to address the core challenge: producing more college graduates to meet the next decade's workforce needs.

As anyone connected to higher ed today will testify, the current budget cuts on campuses both public and private would suggest that larger student bodies are not likely. The planners behind Next Gen see technology as the answer, with four challenges for focus: open core courseware, web 2.0 engagement, blended learning, and learning analytics.

What caught my eye in the background materials: The League for Innovation in the Community Colleges is a partner. That bodes well for the project. Belle Wheelan, president of SACS, serves on the Advisory Panel. And a representative from Creative Commons, Joi Ito, also serves. There are plenty more participants, of course. But I liked seeing these especially.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.