MARGINS EVALUATION OVERVIEW Jen Beck Ph D Eval

MARGINS EVALUATION OVERVIEW Jen Beck, Ph. D Eval. Arts September 18, 2013

PROJECT GOALS 1) Build a community of practice consisting of members of the MARGINS/Geo. PRISMS and Cutting Edge communities to disseminate real-world science to undergraduate classrooms. 2) Develop mini-lessons to synthesize highlights of the four main MARGINS initiatives. 3) Assess the resulting curriculum and develop course frameworks. 4) Disseminate the products of this effort to a broad and diverse audience.

GOAL #1: BUILD A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE A community of practice is a group of people who share a common objective (Wenger, 2000). Your shared objective in this project is moving realworld MARGINS science into undergraduate classrooms by bringing scientific and educational experts together. This approach will allow you to place tested products of highest significance in the hands of audiences prepared to utilize these resources at a high level.

KEY ELEMENTS The domain: members are brought together by a learning need they share. The community: the development of a shared identity around a topic that represents a collective intention to influence a domain of knowledge and to sustain learning about it. The practice: their interactions produce resources that affect their practice.

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS Identification: Communities of practice thrive on social energy, which both derives from and creates identification. Passion for the domain is key. Leadership: A key success factor is the dedication and skill of people who take the initiative to nurture the community. Many communities fail, not because members have lost interest, but simply because nobody has the energy and time to take care of logistics and hold the space for the inquiry. Time: Time is a challenge for most communities, whose members have to handle competing priorities. Because time is at such a premium, a key principle of community cultivation is to ensure “high value for time” for all those who invest themselves.

CYCLES OF VALUE CREATION Cycle 1. Immediate value: Activities and interactions can produce value in and of themselves. Cycle 2. Potential value: Activities and interactions can produce “knowledge capital” whose value lies in its potential to be realized later. Cycle 3. Applied value: Changes in practices Cycle 4. Realized value: Performance improvement Cycle 5. Reframing value: Redefining success

EVALUATION APPROACH Using a multi-method approach Developmental perspective Participant observer in webinars, virtual workshops, meeting, and listservs. Keeping track of immediate value outputs – community participation, creation of mini-lessons. Community member experiences and perceptions via surveys & interviews (post-webinar surveys, post workshop survey, tomorrow’s group interviews, interviews with the project leadership team).

REFERENCES Eckert, P. (2006). Communities of Practice. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier. Lave, J. and E. Wenger (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of Practice. New York, Cambridge University Press. wenger-trayner. com/resources

THANK YOU! Jen Beck evalarts@gmail. com 512 -462 -2558