Evaluation & Assessment
The Additive Manufacturing Summer Institute project has developed a comprehensive
evaluation and assessment plan in conjunction with the project’s external evaluator
The Rucks Group. The evaluation approach includes both formative and summative evaluation.
The evaluation is framed by six evaluative questions, which reflect both formative
evaluation, accountability factors and project implementation; and summative evaluation,
the impact or the difference the project is making on students, industry and the overall
region.
An overview of the project’s evaluation plan can be found in the following document:
AMSI Evaluation Plan
Brief Report: AMSI 2019
Interim Evaluation Report: AMSI 2019
External Evaluation: AMSI 2018
About The Rucks Group
Leading the evaluation in partnership with the PI is Dr. Lana Rucks, Principal Consultant
with The Rucks Group. The Rucks Group is a six-person research and evaluation firm
that gathers, analyzes, and interprets data to enable our clients to measure the impact
of their work. Dr. Rucks holds a doctorate degree in Social Psychology with a concentration
in quantitative methods from The Ohio State University (OSU). Dr. Rucks also holds
two Master of Arts degrees in Social Psychology and Experimental Psychology from OSU
and the University of Dayton, respectively.
The Rucks Group evaluation team has extensive broad experience as an external evaluator,
but also deep specific experience within the NSF ATE community. The Rucks Group works
with several ATE-funded projects and serves as the evaluator for the Community College
of Beaver County (1400503: Systemic Change Through Process Technology); Northeast
Wisconsin Technical College (1304726: UPDATE: Utilities Pipeline Development for Advanced
Technological Education and 1406857: Welding: Wisconsin's Ultimate Rural STEM Pathway);
and Sinclair Community College (1601038: Building an Academic Pathway for Aerial Sensing
Data Analysts and 1600455: Increasing Technician Preparedness in the Built Environment)
as well as EvaluATE (1600992), the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) evaluation
resource center (Western Michigan University), and ATE Central (1261744) all funded
by the Advanced Technology Education program.