Description
The focus of this course is on applied learning and your ability to take the information from the course and apply it to a real problem, program, or policy. There really is no one best way to design a research project. The emphasis is on finding the most appropriate way. For example, choosing exercise over eating unhealthy foods is almost always the best choice. Unfortunately, things are not that clear in research. An evaluation design is not always the best in every circumstance. For example, if you are evaluating the effectiveness of an entitlement program that provides cash to low income families, you should not use an experimental design in which some families are randomly excluded from receiving these benefits. You cannot deny benefits that someone is legally entitled to receive. While an experimental design is usually seen as a good design, in this instance, it would not be appropriate.
For this Assignment, you will develop an effective research question and select an appropriate evaluation design for your program, problem, or policy. Review the Learning Resources for this week. Use the organization that you selected as the topic of your Discussion post for this week, and reference your colleagues’ feedback to guide you in selecting your research question(s) and evaluation design. You will be using their feedback to help you further develop and refine the research question and evaluate design you choose for your research project.
In your Assignment, include the following:
- Briefly describe the organization that you will use for your Final Project.
- Briefly describe the program, problem, or policy within that organization that might benefit from evaluation.
- Develop a research question(s) that defines the purpose of the evaluation.
- Describe the evaluation design that is most appropriate for this program, problem, or policy, and justify your selection. Include a discussion of validity and reliability.
Use at least three scholarly sources from the library that were published within the past five years to support your paper. Be sure to follow APA guidelines when citing your sources.
Papers should be double-spaced and be 3–5 pages in length, not including the cover and reference pages.
Required Resources
Readings
- Johnson, G. (2014). Research methods for public administrators (3rd ed.). Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
- Chapter 3, “What is the Question?” (pp. 34–47)
- Chapter 4, “Identifying Measures and Measurement Strategy” (pp. 48–63)
- Chapter 5, “Designs for Research: The Xs and Os Framework” (pp. 64–83)
- Chapter 6, “Other Research Approaches” (pp. 84–96)
- StatPac. (2009). Qualities of a good question. Retrieved from http://www.statpac.com/surveys/question-qualities.htm
Discussion Queries
Courtnie Walker
Walden University
1
DISCUSSION QUERIES
2
Discussion Queries
Research Question
How effective is the recovery program of the Mental Health America in promoting selfesteem and confidence levels among the mental health patients?
Evaluation Design
The preferable evaluation design for the research question would be experimental design
also referred to as the “golden standard.” According to Rural Health Information Hub (n.d.), the
experimental design acts as a central point of assessing other types of evaluation design due to its
technique for evaluating the cause and effect of a program or intervention. Thus, the technique
for assessing the cause and effect of a program or intervention would be essential in studying the
research question concerning the recovery program of the Mental Health America since it would
establish the cause and effect of the recovery program to the mental health patients. Hence, the
establishment of the cause and effect of the recovery program would help in determining the
levels of self-esteem and confidence of the experimental group.
Additionally, the experimental design can be held to be the best evaluation design of the
underlying research question due to its high aspect of internal validity. The experimental design
is distinguished from other evaluation design by its characteristic of high internal validity
(Bryman, 2016). Thus, the use of the experimental design for the research question would be
appropriate since the high internal validity associated with this type of evaluation design would
enrich more substantial evidence of the effectiveness of the recovery program in improving selfesteem and confidence levels among the mental health patients.
DISCUSSION QUERIES
3
References
Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Rural Health Information Hub. (n.d.). Designing an Evaluation. Retrieved from
https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/rural-toolkit/4/evaluation-design
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