The definition problem in evaluation has been around for decades (as early as Carter, 1971), and multiple definitions of evaluation have been offered throughout the years (see Table 1 for some examples). What is the Concept and Importance of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation. Understand. There are a couple of types of authorship to be aware of. In viewing impact evaluations it is important to consider not only who has evaluated the work but the purpose of the evaluation to determine the limits and relevance of an assessment exercise. It is desirable that the assignation of administrative tasks to researchers is limited, and therefore, to assist the tracking and collating of impact data, systems are being developed involving numerous projects and developments internationally, including Star Metrics in the USA, the ERC (European Research Council) Research Information System, and Lattes in Brazil (Lane 2010; Mugabushaka and Papazoglou 2012). Johnston (Johnston 1995) notes that by developing relationships between researchers and industry, new research strategies can be developed. Evaluation of impact is becoming increasingly important, both within the UK and internationally, and research and development into impact evaluation continues, for example, researchers at Brunel have developed the concept of depth and spread further into the Brunel Impact Device for Evaluation, which also assesses the degree of separation between research and impact (Scoble et al. 4 0 obj 2005; Wooding et al. 0000001325 00000 n It is perhaps worth noting that the expert panels, who assessed the pilot exercise for the REF, commented that the evidence provided by research institutes to demonstrate impact were a unique collection. 0000001087 00000 n Measurement assessment and evaluation also enables educators to measure the skills, knowledge, beliefs, and attitude of the learners. 0000012122 00000 n 0000348060 00000 n What are the methodologies and frameworks that have been employed globally to evaluate research impact and how do these compare? Co-author. 0000342798 00000 n 2008; CAHS 2009; Spaapen et al. This work was supported by Jisc [DIINN10]. Measurement assessment and evaluation helps the teachers to determine the learning progress of the students. However, the Achilles heel of any such attempt, as critics suggest, is the creation of a system that rewards what it can measure and codify, with the knock-on effect of directing research projects to deliver within the measures and categories that reward. << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> The Oxford English Dictionary defines impact as a Marked effect or influence, this is clearly a very broad definition. Test, measurement, and evaluation are concepts used in education to explain how the progress of learning and the final learning outcomes of students are assessed. Merit refers to the intrinsic value of a program, for example, how effective it is in meeting the needs those it is intended help. These traditional bibliometric techniques can be regarded as giving only a partial picture of full impact (Bornmann and Marx 2013) with no link to causality. Ideally, systems within universities internationally would be able to share data allowing direct comparisons, accurate storage of information developed in collaborations, and transfer of comparable data as researchers move between institutions. The growing trend for accountability within the university system is not limited to research and is mirrored in assessments of teaching quality, which now feed into evaluation of universities to ensure fee-paying students satisfaction. In the UK, evaluation of academic and broader socio-economic impact takes place separately. Research findings including outputs (e.g., presentations and publications), Communications and interactions with stakeholders and the wider public (emails, visits, workshops, media publicity, etc), Feedback from stakeholders and communication summaries (e.g., testimonials and altmetrics), Research developments (based on stakeholder input and discussions), Outcomes (e.g., commercial and cultural, citations), Impacts (changes, e.g., behavioural and economic). The development of tools and systems for assisting with impact evaluation would be very valuable. (2007), Nason et al. Introduction, what is meant by impact? There are standardized tests involved in the process of measurement assessment and evaluation to enable the students to make better use of the data available in the daily classroom. While valuing and supporting knowledge exchange is important, SIAMPI perhaps takes this a step further in enabling these exchange events to be captured and analysed. x[s)TyjwI BBU*5,}~O#{4>[n?_?]ouO{~oW_~fvZ}sCy"n?wmiY{]9LXn!v^CkWIRp&TJL9o6CjjvWqAQ6:hU.Q-%R_O:k_v3^=79k{8s7?=`|S^BM-_fa@Q`nD_(]/]Y>@+no/>$}oMI2IdMqH,'f'mxlfBM?.WIn4_Jc:K31vl\wLs];k(vo_Teq9w2^&Ca*t;[.ybfYYvcn Inform funding. Two areas of research impact health and biomedical sciences and the social sciences have received particular attention in the literature by comparison with, for example, the arts. 6. SROI aims to provide a valuation of the broader social, environmental, and economic impacts, providing a metric that can be used for demonstration of worth. The reasoning behind the move towards assessing research impact is undoubtedly complex, involving both political and socio-economic factors, but, nevertheless, we can differentiate between four primary purposes. It is very important to make sure people who have contributed to a paper, are given credit as authors. The fast-moving developments in the field of altmetrics (or alternative metrics) are providing a richer understanding of how research is being used, viewed, and moved. In terms of research impact, organizations and stakeholders may be interested in specific aspects of impact, dependent on their focus. The justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. Any tool for impact evaluation needs to be flexible, such that it enables access to impact data for a variety of purposes (Scoble et al. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. n.d.). The introduction of impact assessments with the requirement to collate evidence retrospectively poses difficulties because evidence, measurements, and baselines have, in many cases, not been collected and may no longer be available. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. It incorporates both academic outputs and wider societal benefits (Donovan and Hanney 2011) to assess outcomes of health sciences research. only one author attempts to define evaluation. 0000334683 00000 n stream Definition of Assessment & Evaluation in Education by Different Authors with Its Characteristics, Evaluation is the collection, analysis and interpretation of information about any aspect of a programme of education, as part of a recognised process of judging its effectiveness, its efficiency and any other outcomes it may have., 2. 0000007559 00000 n These . 2007). Despite the concerns raised, the broader socio-economic impacts of research will be included and count for 20% of the overall research assessment, as part of the REF in 2014. n.d.). 0000008675 00000 n In 200910, the REF team conducted a pilot study for the REF involving 29 institutions, submitting case studies to one of five units of assessment (in clinical medicine, physics, earth systems and environmental sciences, social work and social policy, and English language and literature) (REF2014 2010). What indicators, evidence, and impacts need to be captured within developing systems? 5. However, it must be remembered that in the case of the UK REF, impact is only considered that is based on research that has taken place within the institution submitting the case study. In developing the UK REF, HEFCE commissioned a report, in 2009, from RAND to review international practice for assessing research impact and provide recommendations to inform the development of the REF. Without measuring and evaluating their performance, teachers will not be able to determine how much the students have learned. The authors propose a new definition for measurement process based on the identification of the type of measurand and other metrological elements at each measurement process identified. 0000328114 00000 n A taxonomy of impact categories was then produced onto which impact could be mapped. A key concern here is that we could find that universities which can afford to employ either consultants or impact administrators will generate the best case studies. Impact is not static, it will develop and change over time, and this development may be an increase or decrease in the current degree of impact. An evaluation essay is a composition that offers value judgments about a particular subject according to a set of criteria. CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) was developed for this purpose, first released in 1991; a number of projects and systems across Europe such as the ERC Research Information System (Mugabushaka and Papazoglou 2012) are being developed as CERIF-compatible. The Goldsmith report (Cooke and Nadim 2011) recommended making indicators value free, enabling the value or quality to be established in an impact descriptor that could be assessed by expert panels. Even where we can evidence changes and benefits linked to our research, understanding the causal relationship may be difficult. There is . It is perhaps assumed here that a positive or beneficial effect will be considered as an impact but what about changes that are perceived to be negative? As a result, numerous and widely varying models and frameworks for assessing impact exist. There is a great deal of interest in collating terms for impact and indicators of impact. The risk of relying on narratives to assess impact is that they often lack the evidence required to judge whether the research and impact are linked appropriately. HEFCE developed an initial methodology that was then tested through a pilot exercise. Worth refers to extrinsic value to those outside the . Studies (Buxton, Hanney and Jones 2004) into the economic gains from biomedical and health sciences determined that different methodologies provide different ways of considering economic benefits. From 2014, research within UK universities and institutions will be assessed through the REF; this will replace the Research Assessment Exercise, which has been used to assess UK research since the 1980s. The transition to routine capture of impact data not only requires the development of tools and systems to help with implementation but also a cultural change to develop practices, currently undertaken by a few to be incorporated as standard behaviour among researchers and universities. An evaluation essay or report is a type of argument that provides evidence to justify a writer's opinions about a subject. And also that people who are recognized as authors, understand their responsibility and accountability for what is being published. Throughout history, the activities of a university have been to provide both education and research, but the fundamental purpose of a university was perhaps described in the writings of mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1929). What is the Difference between Formative and Summative Evaluation through Example? 2007; Grant et al. Hb```f``e`c`Tgf@ aV(G Ldw0p)}c4Amff0`U.q$*6mS,T",?*+DutQZ&vO T4]2rBWrL.7bs/lcx&-SbiDEQ&. Downloadable! In the educational context, the . This presents particular difficulties in research disciplines conducting basic research, such as pure mathematics, where the impact of research is unlikely to be foreseen. 2006; Nason et al. A variety of types of indicators can be captured within systems; however, it is important that these are universally understood. In putting together evidence for the REF, impact can be attributed to a specific piece of research if it made a distinctive contribution (REF2014 2011a). 0000011201 00000 n Every piece of research results in a unique tapestry of impact and despite the MICE taxonomy having more than 100 indicators, it was found that these did not suffice. The inherent technical disparities between the two different software packages and the adjustment . , , . The case study does present evidence from a particular perspective and may need to be adapted for use with different stakeholders. The exploitation of research to provide impact occurs through a complex variety of processes, individuals, and organizations, and therefore, attributing the contribution made by a specific individual, piece of research, funding, strategy, or organization to an impact is not straight forward. While aspects of impact can be adequately interpreted using metrics, narratives, and other evidence, the mixed-method case study approach is an excellent means of pulling all available information, data, and evidence together, allowing a comprehensive summary of the impact within context. This is recognized as being particularly problematic within the social sciences where informing policy is a likely impact of research. The RQF pioneered the case study approach to assessing research impact; however, with a change in government in 2007, this framework was never implemented in Australia, although it has since been taken up and adapted for the UK REF. 0000007307 00000 n What emerged on testing the MICE taxonomy (Cooke and Nadim 2011), by mapping impacts from case studies, was that detailed categorization of impact was found to be too prescriptive. In education, the term assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students. 0000001178 00000 n (2005), Wooding et al. Any information on the context of the data will be valuable to understanding the degree to which impact has taken place. It is important to emphasize that Not everyone within the higher education sector itself is convinced that evaluation of higher education activity is a worthwhile task (Kelly and McNicoll 2011). Many theorists, authors, research scholars, and practitioners have defined performance appraisal in a wide variety of ways. According to Hanna- " The process of gathering and interpreted evidence changes in the behavior of all students as they progress through school is called evaluation". It has been acknowledged that outstanding leaps forward in knowledge and understanding come from immersing in a background of intellectual thinking that one is able to see further by standing on the shoulders of giants. For systems to be able to capture a full range of systems, definitions and categories of impact need to be determined that can be incorporated into system development. The Goldsmith report concluded that general categories of evidence would be more useful such that indicators could encompass dissemination and circulation, re-use and influence, collaboration and boundary work, and innovation and invention. This might include the citation of a piece of research in policy documents or reference to a piece of research being cited within the media. In the UK, UK Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills provided funding of 150 million for knowledge exchange in 201112 to help universities and colleges support the economic recovery and growth, and contribute to wider society (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2012). Given that the type of impact we might expect varies according to research discipline, impact-specific challenges present us with the problem that an evaluation mechanism may not fairly compare impact between research disciplines. 0000342937 00000 n 0000346296 00000 n The main risks associated with the use of standardized metrics are that, The full impact will not be realized, as we focus on easily quantifiable indicators. The case study of the Research Information System of the European Research Council, E-Infrastructures for Research and Innovation: Linking Information Systems to Improve Scientific Knowledge, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Current Research Information Systems, (June 69, 2012), pp. This database of evidence needs to establish both where impact can be directly attributed to a piece of research as well as various contributions to impact made during the pathway. A very different approach known as Social Impact Assessment Methods for research and funding instruments through the study of Productive Interactions (SIAMPI) was developed from the Dutch project Evaluating Research in Context and has a central theme of capturing productive interactions between researchers and stakeholders by analysing the networks that evolve during research programmes (Spaapen and Drooge, 2011; Spaapen et al. n.d.). The . Evaluation is the systematic collection and inter- pretation of evidence leading as a part of process to a judgement of value with a view to action., Evaluation is the application of a standard and a decision-making system to assessment data to produce judgments about the amount and adequacy of the learning that has taken place., 1. SIAMPI is based on the widely held assumption that interactions between researchers and stakeholder are an important pre-requisite to achieving impact (Donovan 2011; Hughes and Martin 2012; Spaapen et al. This is a metric that has been used within the charitable sector (Berg and Mnsson 2011) and also features as evidence in the REF guidance for panel D (REF2014 2012). In undertaking excellent research, we anticipate that great things will come and as such one of the fundamental reasons for undertaking research is that we will generate and transform knowledge that will benefit society as a whole. 0000002868 00000 n For more extensive reviews of the Payback Framework, see Davies et al. Impact can be temporary or long-lasting. 0000009507 00000 n Professor James Ladyman, at the University of Bristol, a vocal adversary of awarding funding based on the assessment of research impact, has been quoted as saying that inclusion of impact in the REF will create selection pressure, promoting academic research that has more direct economic impact or which is easier to explain to the public (Corbyn 2009). different things to different people, and it is primarily a function of the application, as will be seen in the following. Cooke and Nadim (2011) also noted that using a linear-style taxonomy did not reflect the complex networks of impacts that are generally found. What are the reasons behind trying to understand and evaluate research impact? Prague, Czech Republic, Health ResearchMaking an Impact. Impact is assessed alongside research outputs and environment to provide an evaluation of research taking place within an institution. These case studies were reviewed by expert panels and, as with the RQF, they found that it was possible to assess impact and develop impact profiles using the case study approach (REF2014 2010). Although some might find the distinction somewhat marginal or even confusing, this differentiation between outputs, outcomes, and impacts is important, and has been highlighted, not only for the impacts derived from university research (Kelly and McNicol 2011) but also for work done in the charitable sector (Ebrahim and Rangan, 2010; Berg and Mnsson 2011; Kelly and McNicoll 2011). Collecting this type of evidence is time-consuming, and again, it can be difficult to gather the required evidence retrospectively when, for example, the appropriate user group might have dispersed. 2. Donovan (2011) asserts that there should be no disincentive for conducting basic research. Aspects of impact, such as value of Intellectual Property, are currently recorded by universities in the UK through their Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey return to Higher Education Statistics Agency; however, as with other public and charitable sector organizations, showcasing impact is an important part of attracting and retaining donors and support (Kelly and McNicoll 2011). The first category includes approaches that promote invalid or incomplete findings (referred to as pseudoevaluations), while the other three include approaches that agree, more or less, with the definition (i.e., Questions and/or Methods-