ECUR 809 Assignment #2

If I were to conduct an evaluation of the prenatal fitness program targeted at Aboriginal women, I would use the Outcomes-Based Evaluation Approach.  The reason I chose to use this approach is because I don’t think that the organization that was running the program had a specific goal in mind, rather they had outcomes that they hoped their participants could meet.  So in this particular case, the stakeholders hoped that by participating in the prenatal fitness program, the participants would learn about living healthy physically and mentally, thereby decreasing their chances of getting Type 2 Diabetes or Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM).  My job would be determining whether or not the organization was doing the right activities for the needs of the participant, thereby meeting the intended outcomes.  By following the steps to accomplish an outcomes-based evaluation, I will now explain why I believe this approach to be effective.

The first step is to identify the major outcomes of the program.  In this particular case, the outcomes are to optimize healthy pregnancies and lifestyles in Aboriginal women and to reduce the rates of Type 2 Diabetes and GDM in Aboriginal women.  Obviously as the client, they have no control over the health and well-being of another person; however, they can provide the services necessary for the participants to actively make the choice to take advantage of the programming being offered.  Just because the women participate in the program, doesn’t guarantee they won’t get Diabetes.   What they did was learn how to live healthy, and in this respect, I think the outcome is partially met.   Therefore, the participants will have been impacted in a positive way, even though the results may not be what they had hoped. 

The second step is to prioritize the outcomes that I would like to examine.  Because I have only identified two outcomes, I could examine them both.  However, I do see optimizing healthy pregnancies and lifestyles as being of most importance.  I think if this is accomplished then the participant has the skills and knowledge necessary to do everything in their power to meet the next outcome.

The third step involves identifying indicators to make sure the outcomes are being met.  For this step, I would need to interact with the participants in order to gain the information I needed.   Some participants may meet the outcomes, but in a different way than another participant.  Some indicators may be a comparison of their current lifestyle to their past lifestyle or past experiences being pregnant.  Another indicator could be whether or not the participants had begun to access additional services and community resources.  Just their participation alone in the program and coming every week could be an indicator.  I suppose as the evaluator I would be making a professional judgment call, similar to that of a teacher.

Specifying a “target” goal of the clients is the fourth step, and perhaps one that is easier to complete.  This would involve me asking the client what they hoped to accomplish with their program.  For example, “By the end of the program, 80% of the participants will have completed the program with healthy pregnancies and an increased knowledge of how to remain fit and live a healthy lifestyle.” 

The fifth step is determining what information needed to show whether or not the indicators have been met.  This step is more of the logistics of the evaluation.  Some of the information is provided from participants registering in the program, and the rest would have to be collected through whatever method I choose to use which leads to the next step.

Determining how to collect all of required information is the sixth step.  In this case I would choose to use questionnaires, interviews and/or case studies. I know it isn’t feasible to do all three, but in a case such as this, I think you would have to use at least two.  Conducting 67 interviews is not realistic, but I don’t think I would get the information I wanted from just giving questionnaires. I work with Aboriginal students on a daily basis, and from my experience, I get more information from my students through conversations.  I think a great time to gather information from them is after their post exercise time.  Conversations are a bit less formal, and I think the participants would be more willing to share and be honest about their experience.  A case study is also a possibility, but again, I wouldn’t use just this method as a means of gathering information. 

Finally, the last step is to analyse and report my findings.  This would be completed once I had compiled all of the information, and I would report on whether or not I thought the program was effective in meeting the needs of the participants. 

I think there are other ways that an evaluator could have used in evaluating this program.  I contemplated using Scriven’s summative and formative model, but the outcomes-based approach seemed to fit a bit better.  In the end, this program wasn’t something that was sought out; the need for it came about through another program.  The author’s seen a need that had to be addressed, and so this program was developed.  Having the knowledge and skills of how to live a healthy lifestyle is essential to decreasing anyone’s chance in getting diabetes.