Design‐focused evaluation

Abstract

In this paper an approach to the writing of evaluation questions is outlined and developed which focuses attention on the question of the effectiveness of an educational design for bringing about the learning it is intended to facilitate. The approach develops from the idea that all educational designs rely on instructional alignment, implicitly or explicitly, and succeed or fail to the extent to which the implementation of that alignment is effective. The approach to evaluation that is described, design‐focused evaluation, utilises students’ experiences of instructional designs and strategies and focuses questions on students’ awareness of the effectiveness of those strategies for facilitating the intended learning outcomes. Detailed advice is given on the construction of items that fit with the approach described and that maximise the generalisability of the approach to most if not all educational settings and designs.