The University and College Union (University and College Union 2011) organized a petition calling on the UK funding councils to withdraw the inclusion of impact assessment from the REF proposals once plans for the new assessment of university research were released. 2007). Cb)5. It can be seen from the panel guidance produced by HEFCE to illustrate impacts and evidence that it is expected that impact and evidence will vary according to discipline (REF2014 2012). 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? What are the challenges associated with understanding and evaluating research impact? Productive interactions, which can perhaps be viewed as instances of knowledge exchange, are widely valued and supported internationally as mechanisms for enabling impact and are often supported financially for example by Canadas Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which aims to support knowledge exchange (financially) with a view to enabling long-term impact. From the outset, we note that the understanding of the term impact differs between users and audiences. In this sense, when reading an opinion piece, you must decide if you agree or disagree with the writer by making an informed judgment. Worth refers to extrinsic value to those outside the . 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. Concerns over how to attribute impacts have been raised many times (The Allen Consulting Group 2005; Duryea et al. In many instances, controls are not feasible as we cannot look at what impact would have occurred if a piece of research had not taken place; however, indications of the picture before and after impact are valuable and worth collecting for impact that can be predicted. These techniques have the potential to provide a transformation in data capture and impact assessment (Jones and Grant 2013). HEFCE developed an initial methodology that was then tested through a pilot exercise. 2008; CAHS 2009; Spaapen et al. A taxonomy of impact categories was then produced onto which impact could be mapped. 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. Impact has become the term of choice in the UK for research influence beyond academia. 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. In terms of research impact, organizations and stakeholders may be interested in specific aspects of impact, dependent on their focus. A Review of International Practice, HM Treasury, Department for Education and Skills, Department of Trade and Industry, Yes, Research can Inform Health Policy; But can we Bridge the Do-Knowing its been Done Gap?, Council for Industry and Higher Education, UK Innovation Research Centre. only one author attempts to define evaluation. As Donovan (2011) comments, Impact is a strong weapon for making an evidence based case to governments for enhanced research support. Evaluation is a process which is continuous as well as comprehensive and involves all the tasks of education and not merely tests, measurements, and examination. When considering the impact that is generated as a result of research, a number of authors and government recommendations have advised that a clear definition of impact is required (Duryea, Hochman, and Parfitt 2007; Grant et al. While defining the terminology used to understand impact and indicators will enable comparable data to be stored and shared between organizations, we would recommend that any categorization of impacts be flexible such that impacts arising from non-standard routes can be placed. It is acknowledged that one of the outcomes of developing new knowledge through research can be knowledge creep where new data or information becomes accepted and gets absorbed over time. RAND selected four frameworks to represent the international arena (Grant et al. The inherent technical disparities between the two different software packages and the adjustment . Here we outline a few of the most notable models that demonstrate the contrast in approaches available. n.d.). Definitions of Performance Appraisal - By McGregor and Dale Beach . It is possible to incorporate both metrics and narratives within systems, for example, within the Research Outcomes System and Researchfish, currently used by several of the UK research councils to allow impacts to be recorded; although recording narratives has the advantage of allowing some context to be documented, it may make the evidence less flexible for use by different stakeholder groups (which include government, funding bodies, research assessment agencies, research providers, and user communities) for whom the purpose of analysis may vary (Davies et al. 0000342958 00000 n The book also explores how different aspects of citizenship, such as attitudes towards diverse population groups and concerns for social issues, relate to classical definitions of norm-based citizenship from the political sciences. If metrics are available as impact evidence, they should, where possible, also capture any baseline or control data. The range and diversity of frameworks developed reflect the variation in purpose of evaluation including the stakeholders for whom the assessment takes place, along with the type of impact and evidence anticipated. New Directions for Evaluation, Impact is a Strong Weapon for Making an Evidence-Based Case Study for Enhanced Research Support but a State-of-the-Art Approach to Measurement is Needed, The Limits of Nonprofit Impact: A Contingency Framework for Measuring Social Performance, Evaluation in National Research Funding Agencies: Approaches, Experiences and Case Studies, Methodologies for Assessing and Evidencing Research Impact. << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> There are a couple of types of authorship to be aware of. 0000002868 00000 n 0000008241 00000 n It is now possible to use data-mining tools to extract specific data from narratives or unstructured data (Mugabushaka and Papazoglou 2012). The process of evaluation is dynamic and ongoing. 2007; Nason et al. They are often written with a reader from a particular stakeholder group in mind and will present a view of impact from a particular perspective. Classroom Assessment -- (sometime referred to as Course-based Assessment) - is a process of gathering data on student learning during the educational experience, designed to help the instructor determine which concepts or skills the students are not learning well, so that steps may be taken to improve the students' learning while the course is This presents particular difficulties in research disciplines conducting basic research, such as pure mathematics, where the impact of research is unlikely to be foreseen. The verb evaluate means to form an idea of something or to give a judgment about something. Time, attribution, impact. Without measuring and evaluating their performance, teachers will not be able to determine how much the students have learned. And also that people who are recognized as authors, understand their responsibility and accountability for what is being published. 0000007223 00000 n 0000001178 00000 n 0000001883 00000 n 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. 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. In this case, a specific definition may be required, for example, in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), Assessment framework and guidance on submissions (REF2014 2011b), which defines impact as, an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia. Describe and use several methods for finding previous research on a particular research idea or question. The following decisions may be made with the aid of evaluation. Capturing knowledge exchange events would greatly assist the linking of research with impact. The advantages and disadvantages of the case study approach. The point at which assessment takes place will therefore influence the degree and significance of that impact. Incorporating assessment of the wider socio-economic impact began using metrics-based indicators such as Intellectual Property registered and commercial income generated (Australian Research Council 2008). 0000342798 00000 n stream The Oxford English Dictionary defines impact as a Marked effect or influence, this is clearly a very broad definition. This atmosphere of excitement, arising from imaginative consideration transforms knowledge.. Assessment for learning is ongoing, and requires deep involvement on the part of the learner in clarifying outcomes, monitoring on-going learning, collecting evidence and presenting evidence of learning to others.. The term comes from the French word 'valuer', meaning "to find the value of". Here we address types of evidence that need to be captured to enable an overview of impact to be developed. By asking academics to consider the impact of the research they undertake and by reviewing and funding them accordingly, the result may be to compromise research by steering it away from the imaginative and creative quest for knowledge. The process of evaluation involves figuring out how well the goals have been accomplished. Impact assessments raise concerns over the steer of research towards disciplines and topics in which impact is more easily evidenced and that provide economic impacts that could subsequently lead to a devaluation of blue skies research. Published by Oxford University Press. 0000001862 00000 n If impact is short-lived and has come and gone within an assessment period, how will it be viewed and considered? 10312. 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. Accountability. 0000334683 00000 n Many theorists, authors, research scholars, and practitioners have defined performance appraisal in a wide variety of ways. 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. Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and. Media coverage is a useful means of disseminating our research and ideas and may be considered alongside other evidence as contributing to or an indicator of impact. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. Definition of evaluation. 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. One way in which change of opinion and user perceptions can be evidenced is by gathering of stakeholder and user testimonies or undertaking surveys. 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). 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. "Evaluation is a process of judging the value of something by certain appraisal." Characteristics of evaluation in Education Below are some of the characteristics of evaluation in education, Continuous Process Comprehensive Child-Centered Cooperative Process Common Practice Teaching Methods Multiple Aspects Continuous Process Where quantitative data were available, for example, audience numbers or book sales, these numbers rarely reflected the degree of impact, as no context or baseline was available. Also called evaluative writing, evaluative essay or report, and critical evaluation essay . Gathering evidence of the links between research and impact is not only a challenge where that evidence is lacking. Metrics have commonly been used as a measure of impact, for example, in terms of profit made, number of jobs provided, number of trained personnel recruited, number of visitors to an exhibition, number of items purchased, and so on. This work was supported by Jisc [DIINN10]. This report, prepared by one of the evaluation team members (Richard Flaman), presents a non-exhaustive review definitions of primarily decentralization, and to a lesser extent decentralization as linked to local governance. The case study approach, recommended by the RQF, was combined with significance and reach as criteria for assessment. 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. Understanding what impact looks like across the various strands of research and the variety of indicators and proxies used to evidence impact will be important to developing a meaningful assessment. What is the Concept and Importance of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation. 2010; Hanney and Gonzlez-Block 2011) and can be thought of in two parts: a model that allows the research and subsequent dissemination process to be broken into specific components within which the benefits of research can be studied, and second, a multi-dimensional classification scheme into which the various outputs, outcomes, and impacts can be placed (Hanney and Gonzalez Block 2011). 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 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. However, the . 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. The Payback Framework is possibly the most widely used and adapted model for impact assessment (Wooding et al. In line with its mandate to support better evaluation, EvalNet is committed to working with partners in the global evaluation community to address these concerns, and is currently exploring options for additional work. 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). 0000001087 00000 n The transfer of information electronically can be traced and reviewed to provide data on where and to whom research findings are going. 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. Other approaches to impact evaluation such as contribution analysis, process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, and theory-based evaluation designs (e.g., Stern, Stame, Mayne, Forss, & Befani, 2012) do not necessarily employ explicit counterfactual logic for causal inference and do not introduce observation-based definitions. Measurement assessment and evaluation also enables educators to measure the skills, knowledge, beliefs, and attitude of the learners. Enhancing Impact. What are the methodologies and frameworks that have been employed globally to evaluate research impact and how do these compare? Recommendations from the REF pilot were that the panel should be able to extend the time frame where appropriate; this, however, poses difficult decisions when submitting a case study to the REF as to what the view of the panel will be and whether if deemed inappropriate this will render the case study unclassified. The case study does present evidence from a particular perspective and may need to be adapted for use with different stakeholders. 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. Impact is derived not only from targeted research but from serendipitous findings, good fortune, and complex networks interacting and translating knowledge and research. The time lag between research and impact varies enormously. 2005; Wooding et al. 2007) who concluded that the researchers and case studies could provide enough qualitative and quantitative evidence for reviewers to assess the impact arising from their research (Duryea et al.
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