Quasi-Experiment: Program Evaluation on a Nonprofit Organization
Quasi-experimental designs are often used when conducting program evaluations on nonprofit organizations. Examples of such organizations are police stations, fire departments, emergency rooms, and community health clinics. It is not possible to randomly assign people to go to a specific emergency room or community health clinic, as this is dependent on where someone is when an emergency occurs or where someone lives — which cannot be randomly assigned. Therefore, a single factor experimental design is not possible. Quasi-experiments allow researchers to collect data without random assignment. Information gained from quasi-experiments as part of program evaluation can help to improve patient care, cost efficiency, patient satisfaction, timeliness of services, job satisfaction, and so on.
Pretend you have a grant to create a quasi-experiment to do a program evaluation on a nonprofit. Choose one of the five types of program evaluation that you would use (needs assessment, program theory and design assessment, process evaluation, outcome evaluation, or efficiency assessment) and respond to the following. Consider responding to peers who chose a different type of program evaluation than you did
What nonprofit(s) would you focus on? Why?
What would be your research question?
What type of program evaluation did you choose? Why?
What data would you gather? Why?
Would you want to use an employee or external consultant to collect the data? Why?
How might the results of this program evaluation be useful?
Reference:
Passer, M. (2020). Research Methods (3rd ed.). Macmillan Higher Education. https://purdueuniversityglobal(dot)vitalsource(dot)com/books/9781319363536
Unit 8 Discussion
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Unit 8 Discussion
The focus of my quasi-experimental study would be on community health clinics as non-profit organizations. The reason for selecting community health clinics is that they are uniquely suited to the applications of the quasi-experimental study design primarily due to the diversity in the needs they address. Specifically, community health groups serve a diverse group of vulnerable populations each with unique health needs. Therefore, the success of these facilities rests on a detailed understanding of the unique requirements of their clients.
The proposed quasi-experimental study intends to answer the following question:
What are the most urgent health needs of the communities served by the community health clinics, and the extent to which these needs vary due to demographic qualities such as age, gender, and income level?
The proposed quasi-experimental study would utilize a needs assessment as the preferred program evaluation method. The needs assessment approach makes it possible to prioritize the needs in a particular population of interest (Passer, 2021). Presently, the needs evaluation would facilitate a detailed understanding of the most pressing health needs and the gaps in service. O...