Evaluation for Continuing Education: A Comprehensive Guide to Success » (1st Edition)

Alan Knox is professor of continuing education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Widely respected in the field, he has twice received the Adult Education Association's Okes Award for outstanding research and was awarded the Syracuse University School of Education distinguished alumnus award in 1980. Knox has authored several Jossey-Bass books, including such classic works as Adult Development and Learning (1977) and Helping Adults Learn (1986).

Evaluation for Continuing Education provides the useful and practical tools necessary to ensure a successful program evaluation. The book presents systematic guidelines aimed at enhancing understanding of evaluation concepts and procedures, and offers manageable ways to selectively include evaluation activities as an integral part of program planning, implementation, and justification. Author Alan Knox reveals that the key to successful evaluations that improve education programs for adults is a basic rationale for why and how. He helps readers select and develop their own rationale throughout the course of the book while suggesting fundamental evaluation concepts and procedures. He shows how to distinguish some program aspect upon which a specific evaluation project will focus-including needs assessment, goals and policies, staffing assessment, materials development, and more-and summarizes examples of evaluation reports that reflect the various types of providers and scales on which evaluations are conducted. Knox offers a particularly wide variety of these examples, enabling readers to reflect on implications for their own evaluations and fashion unique guidelines and procedures that fit their own situations.

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Practical tools are provided for ensuring successful evaluation of continuing education programs and for including evaluation activities as part of program planning. Examples of evaluation reports reflect various types of providers and scales on which evaluations are conducted. The book is useful for program planners in any type of continuing education program, such as continuing education in the professions, ESL programs, and community colleges. Knox teaches continuing education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)