Empowering Graduate Students through Experiential Learning: A Case of Simultaneous Program Evaluation and Research in Higher Education

Our presentation explores the experience of a team of doctoral students who, while conducting an evaluation, also collected data for research on program evaluation. For the evaluation project, our team evaluated the peer tutoring program in a community college, and for the research on the evaluation project, we explored the impacts of survey modality (choice, online, and paper) on data quality (straightlining and completion rate). The practical learning acquired through hands-on program evaluation as an integral component of coursework proved to be extremely valuable in acquiring the skills to conduct effective evaluations. Challenges faced during this process underscored the significance of narrowing the focus of evaluation down to make it manageable in a semester and fostering collaboration with the site being evaluated.