Course Description
This course will provide professional masters students with an introduction to fundamental data management and analytic procedures and techniques used in program, policy, and budget evaluation in parks, recreation, sport, and tourism settings. The course places emphasis on the rationale for using specific data management and analysis procedures and interpretation and presentation of results for data-decision decision making. Emphasis is also placed on becoming familiar with statistical procedures available in Microsoft Excel and within Google Spreadsheets.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the importance of data in measuring success, evaluation, and decision making.
2. Formulate meaningful evaluation objectives to guide data management and analysis.
3. Conduct basic descriptive and inferential statistical procedures.
4. Choose appropriate methods of displaying data analysis results.
5. Use appropriate terminology to interpret and communicate results from data analysis.
6. Manage and store data so that it may be returned to or shared with others.
Reflections and Summary
Before the Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Sport Masters program, I had taken an evaluation class, AEE 577: Evaluation in Agricultural and Extension Education, focused on how to collect data through pre and post tests or surveys. I had not learned, however, how to utilize data in a meaningful way to understand an organization’s situation or convey that to stakeholders effectively. This course is teaching me tangible ways in which I can take a data set and analyze it and then communicate something meaningful through the use of visualizations and infographics.
In Extension we consistently collect data through evaluations for activities, events, and programs that we present. This class, coupled with AEE577, is equipping me with the tools and skills to effectively utilize data to demonstrate important findings and tell a meaningful story.
Caroline Goss Portfolio 