Public Affairs 6075: Data, Models and Evaluation

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This is a sample syllabus to provide general information about the course and it's requirements. Course requirements are subject to change. This syllabus does not contain all assignment or course detail and currently enrolled students should reference the syllabus provided by their instructor. For a specific syllabus, please email us a request.

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Course Overview

4 Credit Hours
Modalities Available: Online

This course will provide students with the knowledge and tools necessary to analyze data. Students learn about fundamentals of statistics to conduct analysis, and they will develop an understanding of program evaluation and research design in order to evaluate the quality of analyses conducted by others and communicate findings. The class places emphasis on the interpersonal skills involved with the practice of interactive evaluations, which include culture, conflict, and politics.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students should have a strong understanding of the following:

  • What constitutes credible evidence in support of a management decision or policy argument in the public and nonprofit sectors
  • Basic statistical logic
  • Program evaluation and its value in public sector decision making

Upon successful completion of the course, student should be able to

  • Calculate, communicate, and consume applied statistics related to public and nonprofit management and public policy problems
  • Conduct computer-based statistical analyses
  • Interpret and communicate statistical information in both technical and non-technical language
  • Test basic statistical hypotheses
  • Critique statistical analyses produced by others
  • Identify and assess the appropriate use of evaluation methods, including understanding study limitations
  • Interpret the results of outcome/impact evaluation studies for decision makers
  • Evaluate connections between public problems, goals, public programs, output and outcomes

Requirements and Expectations

A textbook may be required for this course. Please consult your instructor's syllabus for detail. 

Each week, students must:

  • Read assigned portions of textbooks and/or supplementary materials
  • Watch lectures recorded by the professor or other video content provided
  • Apply concepts from that week to an assignment, described below
  • Check in with the instructor through a brief, ungraded “exit ticket”

Deliverables and Points:

  • Discussion boards (weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 12),  90 (15 each) 

  • Process evaluation assignment (week 2), 60

  • Measurement assignment (week 4), 60

  • Group case study assignment (week 6), 150

  • Stata homework 1 (mini) (week 9), 30

  • Stata homework 2 (week 11), 60

  • Stata homework 3 (week 13), 60

  • Final homework (week 14), 90

In weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 12, students will be provided discussion board prompts. Students will be expected to reply to these prompts and, in some cases, also reply to one of their classmates’ posts.

In the case when only an individual response is required, students must complete that response by MONDAY at 11:59pm of the week it is assigned.

In the case when students must respond to a post and reply to classmate’s post, students’ original post must be up by SATURDAY at 11:59pm of the week it is assigned in order to give everyone enough opportunity to read and reply to a post of their choosing. Response posts will then be due by MONDAY at 11:59pm of the same week.

Each week, instructions for the discussion board will be re-explained and made specific to that week.

Effective class contribution on discussion board entails providing good answers to questions. Good answers to questions indicate that you are actively responding to the posts and are providing comments relevant to the ongoing discussion. Relevant comments add to the understanding of the underlying conceptual material, challenge and clarify the ideas expressed by others, integrate material from your job and/or other courses, and show evidence of analysis rather than mere opinion or “gut feeling.” Excellent responses demonstrate that you have thought deeply about the material and can develop creative and innovative insights through this analytic effort. Effective class contribution does not entail faking answers, ignoring the contributions of others, or repeating facts or statements from the readings without analysis. In all cases, correct language, grammar, and spelling are required.

Students will be graded out of 15 possible points for each discussion board. When a response post is required, the original post will be graded out of 10 points, and the response post will be graded out of 5 points.

In weeks 2, 4, 9, 11, 13, and 14, students will be required to complete a non-discussion board assignment relevant to the course content that week. These assignments will be graded according to the point distribution above. Students will be provided with more details on these assignments when they are assigned. All of these assignments will be due on Monday by 11:59pm the week they are assigned.

In week 6 there will be no new course content. Instead students will work on a case study mini-project in small groups. 

Weekly Schedule

  1. Introduction and ethics

  2. Process evaluation

  3. Outcome evaluation

  4. Quantitative data

  5. Qualitative data

  6. CASE STUDY

  7. Management 1: Evaluation conversations and managing conflict

  8. Management 2: Creating a viable process and dealing with the unexpected

  9. Data and descriptive statistics: one variable

  10. Relationships between two variables (association)

  11. Sampling, inference, and confidence intervals

  12. Hypothesis testing 1

  13. Hypothesis testing 2

  14. Basics of regression analysis + Wrap up

Previous Instructors Have Included