California State University of San Bernardino

Reflection #2

Dorian Johnson

HSCI 615

Dr. Mshigeni

February 29 2020
 HSCI 615 has taught me a lot this quarter in terms of evaluating programs and

understanding what makes a program effective. In this reflection piece, I will cover my

understanding of process evaluation as well as how I will apply it to future program evaluation. I

will explain my current understanding of the different types of program evaluations. Lastly, I

will explain in my reflection how I intend the use the information I learned from this course in

the future.

Before week one, my understanding of program evaluation was reviewing a health

prevention program and deciding what needs to be included or removed from the program. I did

not know there is a process when it comes to evaluating programs and also determining what

type of evaluation each program is.

After week 8, I began to fully understand what exactly process evaluation is and when it

is the best time to use it. “Process evaluation occurs once program implementation has begun,

and it measures how effective your program procedures are." (Nanda 2017). I know you can

evaluate through any phase when it comes to process evaluation. In my opinion, the best time to

evaluate programs is when the first program is implemented and when the application is

complete to assess the outcome.

My current understanding of formative evaluation is that before designing and planning a

program, data is used to determine the baseline of an application and what needs to be done to

improve the program. A summative evaluation is a simple evaluation and is conducted at the end

of a program. This evaluation is good at measuring what worked during the program and what

was not sufficient. This evaluation helps determine to stakeholders and health educators it is

worth to keep continuing to fund the program. Personally, I think a summative assessment is the

best evaluation overall because, at the end of the program, you have results to analyze. You can
determine what worked and what did not and improve the program if stakeholders continue to

fund the program. Also, the concepts help me understand the program's effectiveness and helps

make it easier to evaluate an application.

How I intend to use the information I learned from this course going forward will be

beneficial. It will be helpful in future classes as well as a future educator. I will now be able to

evaluate the program and see what worked and what did not work, and if I am creating a plan, I

can use the information from my program evaluation to my benefit. The data from this course

will aid me in future classwork and as a future health educator.

In conclusion, what I presented in this assignment is a good understanding as to what

program evaluation is. I was able to explain how I will use this information in the future. I

discussed how, in my opinion, summative evaluation is the best type of program evaluation.

HSCI 615 was a beneficial course that was not taken advantage of, and I learned a lot of valuable

information.
 References

Nanda, Vipul. 2017. “The 7 Types of Evaluation You Need to Know.” Atlan | Humans of Data.
https://humansofdata.atlan.com/2017/04/7-types-of-evaluation/ (February 23, 2020).