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.