This 3-credit course will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of evaluation research design and methods as applied to public policies and programs. The course will cover the role of evaluation in the public policy process, and both process and summative evaluation research, including research designs for establishing causal inference between exposure to public policies/programs and outcomes. Students will gain skills in understanding and crafting research designs common in public policy evaluation, including randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs and time series designs. Students will also gain skills in understanding/critiquing published public policy evaluation literature, measurement/data collection methods, and basic statistical methods for analyzing evaluation data. Class format will include lecture, discussion of case studies, and small group applied exercises.
This course will help build your research/analysis skills
