Spring 2025 SOWK 460w Week 01 - Introduction to Social Program Evaluation

Spring 2025 SOWK 460w Week 01 - Introduction to Social Program Evaluation
I’m so excited to get to a class with all of you. This class is mostly in person, but we do have about six weeks where we are just working asynchronously.
Many of you have taken multiple classes with me, and some of you this is the second one that you have taken.
title: Spring 2025 SOWK 460w Week 01 - Introduction to Social Program Evaluation date: 2025-01-22 13:17:01 location: Heritage University tags:
- Heritage University
- BASW Program
- SOWK 460w presentation_video: > “” description: >
Welcome to SOWK 460w! I’m excited to work with you all this semester. Week one of the Social Service Program Evaluation is focused on the course syllabus and setting things up for the rest of the semester. We don’t have class this week, but I wanted to share a video before we jump into content next week.
The agenda for this week is as follows:
- Introduce the course
- Introduce myself
The objectives for this week are as follows:
- Understand the structure and expectations of the course

Agenda: Plan for this Video
- Introduce the course
- Introduce myself

About Me and This Class: The Why
There are very many of who are passionate about research and research methods. I do really love it.
Why Research
- Program evaluation is cool
- For those of you who took my theory classes, I talked about how a program evaluation got me my job at PSD
- Goal to encourage you to be more interested in evaluation
Why Me
- Program evaluations I’ve been a part of (MSW program evaluation and PEER-EBD)
- My education
- My work

Review Syllabus
I want to go though and review the syllabus. I put a ton of work into my syllabi and it really drives the class so make sure you read through it. I’m going to just call out a couple of parts in this video.

Textbook and Helpful Resources
Textbook: Royse, D. (2022). Program evaluation: A practical guide for social work and the helping professions. Cognella Academic Publishing.
I do want want to change it next year, as it is older. Still valuable, but lacks current discussions and issues.
Helpful Resources
- Google Scholar
- Eagle Search
- APA Style Guide

Format and Learning in SOWK 460
- In-class Lecture
- Group Discussion and Peer Review
- Real World Program Evaluation
- Asynchronous Weeks and Class time to Work on Evaluation
- Group Presentation
- Readings and Other Content
- Academic Writing & Feedback

Assignment Overview
I grade students on four different significant assignments for SOWK 460w. In-class participation is assigned each week. Weeks with reading from the textbook also have an associated quiz. Students complete research ethics/compliance training to prepare them for the investigation they will be conducting. The program evaluation is the most significant assignment for this class. This assignment has been divided into parts to help students progress through the evaluation process. Furthermore, extra credit options are available for students to complete regarding reviewing a published program evaluation and a report on implementing the student’s program evaluation.
This table delineates the assignments, their point value, and the percentage of the overall class grades.
Assignment | Points | Percentage |
---|---|---|
A-01: Class Engagement and Attendance | 100 | 10% |
A-02: Chapter Reading Quizzes | 50 | 5% |
A-03: CITI Research Ethics and Compliance Training | 50 | 5% |
A-04: Group Program Evaluation Project | ||
A-04a: Individual Weekly Journal Entries | 200 | 20% |
A-04b: Group Work Plan for the Program Evaluation | 100 | 10% |
A-04c: Agency Logic Model | 100 | 10% |
A-04d: Executive Summary for the Program Evaluation | 200 | 20% |
A-04e: Program Evaluation Group Presentation | 200 | 20% |
TOTAL | 1000 | 100% |
A-05a [Extra Credit]: Review of a Published Program Evaluation | 50 | 5% |
A-05b [Extra Credit]: Descriptive Review of Groups Program Evaluation | 100 | 10% |

Contact Meet
- Importance of reaching out
- Best ways to get ahold of me

Academic Honesty
Who’s information is this?
Use of LLMs like ChatGPT

Tentative Schedule
Talk about synchronous verses asynchronous days

Rubrics
- How I use them
- Scoring
- Feedback

Other Information
There is a bunch of other information on the syllabus. Make sure you read through it.