ABSTRACT

Increasing instructional quality in higher education is a key goal of educational development (ED) work, yet demonstrating complex outcomes remains challenging and lacks practical guidance. Evaluating ED services often relies on a reductionist approach characterized by linear assumptions of causal pathways to measure the extent to which instructional outcomes have been achieved and uses proxies such as short-term participant satisfaction. This paper advances a complexity-informed approach for guiding the evaluation of complex outcomes of ED services across individuals and activities within institutions that is adaptable across institutional contexts. To do this, we position the need for innovation in evaluation approaches within current ED literature and practice, and outline key implications of four complexity principles for guiding our approach. Then we describe an iterative process for developing and implementing the evaluation approach within a larger Centre for Teaching and Learning self-study. We describe the transferability of the evaluation approach to contexts beyond the study, and conclude with theoretical, practical, and methodological implications for evidence-based decision-making and strategic planning of ED work.

摘要

高等教育中提高教学质量是教育发展（ED）工作的主要目标，但证明复杂的结果仍然具有挑战性且缺乏实践指导。评估急诊服务通常依赖于减少主义的方法，其特征在于因果路径的线性假设，以衡量教学成果的实现程度，并使用诸如短期参与者满意度之类的代理。本文提出了一种基于复杂性的方法，用于指导评估跨机构个人和机构内活动的ED服务的复杂结果，该结果可在机构环境中进行调整。为此，我们在当前的ED文献和实践中提出了评估方法创新的需求，并概述了指导我们方法的四个复杂性原则的关键含义。然后，我们描述了在较大的教与学自学中心内开发和实施评估方法的迭代过程。我们描述了评估方法在研究之外的环境中的可移植性，并以理论，实践和方法论上的结论作为对基于证据的决策和ED工作战略规划的总结。