Evaluating Educational Development

Carol A. Hurney is Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning at Colby College, USA, and Former President of the POD Network.Bonnie B. Mullinix is Co-President of Jacaranda Educational Development, USA, and has worked as faculty and educational developer at many Universities and Colleges, most recently at the Centre for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) at University College Cork, Ireland.R. Todd Benson is Executive Director of The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard University, USA.

• 1. Introduction 2. Examining Educational Development Domains of Practice 3. Constructing an Evaluation Plan 4. Building the Data Portfolio 5. Augmenting Your Data Portfolio 6. Collecting, Managing, and Using Data 7. Closing the Loop: Applying and Disseminating Evaluation Findings

"Hurney, Mullinix, and Benson have authored a must-read book for institutions committed to evidence-based educational development. It offers a powerful research and practice-based lens on evaluating the work of CTLs. It made me think differently and more inclusively about the evaluation approaches I’ve used throughout my entire career. Read this book. It is a wonderful gift to educational developers dedicated to thoughtfully assessing the impact and outcomes of educational development."Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Founding Director of Center for Teaching and Learning (1988-2014); Professor, Educational Policy, Research & Leadership (2006-2014) University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA; POD Network President (2000-2002)"As a fellow scholar in the field of educational development evaluation, I am thrilled to see Hurney, Mullinix, and Benson's contribution to this critical area. Their book offers a well-written, succinct, and highly practical approach to evaluating educational development work in its many forms. Its step-by-step guidance, coupled with practical tools and examples, will empower practitioners to design comprehensive evaluation plans tailored to their institutional contexts and the diverse activities they undertake. As we enter an era where evidence-based practice in educational development is increasingly vital, this book stands as an essential resource and will undoubtedly advance our collective ability to rigorously evaluate and continually improve the work of educational developers."Sue Hines, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Saint Mary’s University, USA, and co-author of Designing and Implementing Program Evaluation for Teaching and Learning Centers: An Evidence Based Model"Look no further! Finally, all the pieces of evaluating a teaching & learning center are gathered into a very accessible step-by-step handbook that ties together key research on center evaluation approaches and a much-needed expanded explanation of the POD-ACE Center for Teaching and Learning Matrix. Providing open-access spreadsheets that any center or office can adapt to their unique needs, this book hands us information and tools that identify and make visible data that when analyzed can celebrate current and past successes and guide future directions. Even though time and resources are still a challenge to conducting evaluation, this book shows us an easy next step to being able to tell our own stories."Eli Collins-Brown, Director, Coulter Faculty Commons, Western Carolina University, USA"Evaluating Educational Development is an important new resource which has many audiences, but especially higher education professionals who work in college and university educational development centers. I have had the privilege of helping to create or transform five university educational development centers and have supervised four of them over a span of 20 years. During that time, in US higher education, centers such as these went from peripheral novelties to central players in high performing colleges and universities. This book is a thorough, articulate, clearly organized, and profoundly practical text that helps educational development practitioners to do the good work of educational development (in its many forms) ever more effectively. This book is such a tool and a significant addition to the higher education literature - I recommend it highly."Douglas L. Robertson, Professor of Higher Education (2008-present) and University Undergraduate Dean (2008-2016), Florida International University, USA; author, Making Learning, Lessons Learned: An Intellectual Memoir on Developing as a College Teacher (2023)"This is the guide to evaluation I wish I could have read when I was directing a center for teaching and learning. The book provides both big picture and practical details for constructing an evaluation plan, and I really appreciate the emphasis on using existing institutional data as part of that plan."Derek Bruff, Higher Education Consultant, Author of Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching, Producer of the Intentional Teaching podcast"I am most impressed with the scope and depth of insight to be found in Evaluating Educational Development as well as the range of specific tools that Hurney, Mullinix, and Benson provide. Having worked in the field of Educational Development in Higher Education for more than 30 years, I’ve been asked to provide evidence of the usefulness of this work and to justify the expenditure of scarce institutional resources on this effort. My center, like others, was left to develop our own approaches which in our case took the form of a custom database, specific to our context but not easily adapted across the field. While serving as an external reviewer for several other centers, I saw that the field was struggling and in need of what this book now offers: a structured processes for devising the right goals and outcomes to support a unit’s Mission. This book will provide members of the educational development community the intellectual and practical tools to engage in effective, persuasive, evidence-based assessment to drive improvement and planning and to demonstrate outcomes and impact."Alan Kalish, Assistant Vice Provost, Undergraduate Education (2018-present), Director, University Center for the Advancement of Teaching (2000-2018), Adjunct Associate Professor, Educational Studies (2014-present), The Ohio State University, USA"Grounded in the ethical core of educational development, this book offers a long absent tool and insights that promise to strengthen the credibility and longevity of our work and the field. Evaluating Educational Development shows what’s possible and offers a practical path forward with such clarity that it is not only relevant for educational developers but could serve as an informative resource for graduate students across disciplines, as the ideas are relevant for any project, activity or program. Overall, this work offers a clear and well-scaffolded guide for both new and seasoned educational developers who are either preparing to embark on evaluating their practice or are ready to revisit and refine how they approach the design, collection and use of data to inform evidence-based decisions and reporting practices."Marilla D. Svinicki, Director of Center of Teaching Effectiveness (1973-2004); Full Faculty, Educational Psychology (2004-2014) University of Texas at Austin; POD Network President (1987–1989)"Ultimately, this book presents a vision for the future of academic and educational development that is firmly grounded in evidence, collaboration, and impact. Providing a comprehensive framework for evaluation, the authors empower academic developers to demonstrate their value rigorously and compellingly. This is particularly important in an era where higher education institutions face growing pressure to justify their investments and demonstrate their contributions to student success. Within the international academic development literature, Evaluating Educational Development stands out for its emphasis on practical application and systemic impact."Cheng Yanhua; International Journal of Academic Development