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“I need to evaluate my environmental education program. What do I do?”
Environmental
educators are committed to offering quality programs. This requires
gathering evidence on the effectiveness of programs and gaining insight
into how to improve them. However, so many environmental educators feel
they lack the experience or tools they need to conduct a quality
evaluation. Furthermore, there are an overwhelming number of evaluation
resources to choose from. MEERA was created to help educators overcome
these challenges by walking them through the steps of conducting a
meaningful and useful EE evaluation, providing targeted information,
and creating a forum for discussion. The results of a good evaluation
can provide the information needed to get more bang for the EE buck –
and the evidence donors want to invest in programs.
Table of Contents
(links skip to content below)MEERA’s Goal
The
goal of MEERA is to support the evaluation efforts of environmental
educators. MEERA accomplishes this goal by facilitating access to
relevant resources through a single, web-based location (See MEERA's Logic Model for more information).
MEERA's Principles
MEERA has four guiding principles:
The evaluation experiences of environmental educators differ from practitioner to practitioner. As such, MEERA seeks to address the different evaluation needs of "beginner", "intermediate" and "advanced" evaluators. Users with these different levels of experiences will therefore find information that is the most meaningful and relevant for them. Throughout MEERA, labels titled beginner, intermediate, and advanced, and using specific colors, will indicate to users that information is targeted to those skill levels.
2) Focus on program evaluation with an emphasis on measuring outcomes
Though it is important for practitioners to assess program participants’ needs and to engage in formative program evaluations, the focus of MEERA is on supporting summative evaluations. This is because environmental educators have expressed that their greatest need is in determining the educational, environmental or health related outcomes of their programs.
3) Selective, rather than comprehensive focus
Comprehensive websites that attempt to gather every possible resource for inclusion in their directories are often overwhelming due to the volume of information and cumbersome navigation schemes. As a result, MEERA is selective in terms of what resources it identifies and describes. Resources are included based on their contribution to supporting the presentation of a range of examples, information, and current “best practices.”
4) Provide enhanced usability
Users structure information in their minds differently and access websites through a variety of portals. Therefore, MEERA cross-links information to maximize users' ability to find information they want and need. MEERA also provides tips and hints to help users avoid common evaluation pitfalls.
MEERA's Features
MEERA is organized to meet environmental educators' needs in the following ways:
| educator need | feature | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Learn about the purpose and process of evaluation |
| completed |
| |
| completed |
| |
| in progress |
| |
| in progress |
| |
| completed |
| | | |
| Find examples of how EE evaluation is done in practice |
| in progress |
| |
| in progress |
| | | |
| Develop measures to evaluate outcomes of EE programs |
| in progress |
| |
| in progress |
| | | |
| Find information on MEERA website in intuitive ways |
| in progress |
| |
| in progress |
MEERA is Made Possible by...
Partners
Michaela Zint, University of Michigan
Andrew Burnett, USDA Forest Service
Kathleen MacKinnon, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Barbara McDonald, USDA Forest Service
Steering Commitee Members
Elaine Andrews, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Judy Braus, National Audubon Society
Jack Chin, Blueprint Research & Design Inc.
Gabriel Della-Piana, NSF Division of Research, Evaluation & Communication
Deron Davis, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
M. Lynette Fleming, Research, Evaluation & Development Services
Rosanne W. Fortner, Environmental Education Consulting
Peter Gordon, Elachee Nature Science Center
Joe Heimlich, Ohio State University; Institute for Learning Innovation
Susan Jacobson, University of Florida - Gainesville
Deborah Simmons, Northern Illinois University
Richard Wilke, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Other Contributors
Elizabeth H. Danter, E. Danter Evaluation, LLC
Anita Kraemer, eeEvaluations
Marcella Wells, Wells Resources
University of Michigan Students
Brian T. Barch, School of Natural Resources & Environment
Jason Duvall, School of Natural Resources & Environment
Amy Higgs, School of Education, School of Natural Resources & Environment
Nick Montgomery, School of Education
Jennifer Sellers, School of Natural Resources & Environment
Kim Wolske, School of Natural Resources & Environment
Computer Consultants and Assistants
Autumm Caines, Eastern Michigan University
Paul Nowak, North American Association for Environmental Education
Ken Wasetis, Contextual Corp.
Reviewers
In addition to the above, we thank:
Kimberly Benson, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Nadine Bloch, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Jennifer Dillard, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Janice Easton, University of Florida
Megan Gavin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Lauren Greene, Dunwoody Nature Center
Sally Hanft, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Don Howlett, USDA Forest Service
Becky Jones, Elachee Nature Science Center
Kristi Kantola, USDA Forest Service
Rainey Kreis, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Nate Meyer, University of Minnesota Extension Service
