0000334683 00000 n The following decisions may be made with the aid of evaluation. In the Brunel model, depth refers to the degree to which the research has influenced or caused change, whereas spread refers to the extent to which the change has occurred and influenced end users. It is a process that involves careful gathering and evaluating of data on the actions, features, and consequences of a program. (2006) on the impact arising from health research. 0000003495 00000 n stream And also that people who are recognized as authors, understand their responsibility and accountability for what is being published. In developing the UK REF, HEFCE commissioned a report, in 2009, from RAND to review international practice for assessing research impact and provide recommendations to inform the development of the REF. The quality and reliability of impact indicators will vary according to the impact we are trying to describe and link to research. It is time-intensive to both assimilate and review case studies and we therefore need to ensure that the resources required for this type of evaluation are justified by the knowledge gained. As part of this review, we aim to explore the following questions: What are the reasons behind trying to understand and evaluate research impact? Throughout history, the activities of a university have been to provide both education and research, but the fundamental purpose of a university was perhaps described in the writings of mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1929). A discussion on the benefits and drawbacks of a range of evaluation tools (bibliometrics, economic rate of return, peer review, case study, logic modelling, and benchmarking) can be found in the article by Grant (2006). Evaluation of impact is becoming increasingly important, both within the UK and internationally, and research and development into impact evaluation continues, for example, researchers at Brunel have developed the concept of depth and spread further into the Brunel Impact Device for Evaluation, which also assesses the degree of separation between research and impact (Scoble et al. 1. If knowledge exchange events could be captured, for example, electronically as they occur or automatically if flagged from an electronic calendar or a diary, then far more of these events could be recorded with relative ease. evaluation practice and systems that go beyond the criteria and their definitions. As such research outputs, for example, knowledge generated and publications, can be translated into outcomes, for example, new products and services, and impacts or added value (Duryea et al. The risk of relying on narratives to assess impact is that they often lack the evidence required to judge whether the research and impact are linked appropriately. To adequately capture interactions taking place between researchers, institutions, and stakeholders, the introduction of tools to enable this would be very valuable. Co-author. The point at which assessment takes place will therefore influence the degree and significance of that impact. Evaluate means to assess the value of something. There is a great deal of interest in collating terms for impact and indicators of impact. While the case study is a useful way of showcasing impact, its limitations must be understood if we are to use this for evaluation purposes. Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and. These metrics may be used in the UK to understand the benefits of research within academia and are often incorporated into the broader perspective of impact seen internationally, for example, within the Excellence in Research for Australia and using Star Metrics in the USA, in which quantitative measures are used to assess impact, for example, publications, citation, and research income. Perhaps, SROI indicates the desire to be able to demonstrate the monetary value of investment and impact by some organizations. Test, measurement, and evaluation are concepts used in education to explain how the progress of learning and the final learning outcomes of students are assessed. To enable research organizations including HEIs to monitor and manage their performance and understand and disseminate the contribution that they are making to local, national, and international communities. To evaluate impact, case studies were interrogated and verifiable indicators assessed to determine whether research had led to reciprocal engagement, adoption of research findings, or public value. Different authors have different notions of educational evaluation. The . In the UK, evidence and research impacts will be assessed for the REF within research disciplines. Why should this be the case? 0000342958 00000 n Inform funding. One notable definition is provided by Scriven (1991) and later adopted by the American Evaluation Association (): "Evaluation is the systematic process to determine merit, worth, value, or . While assessments are often equated with traditional testsespecially the standardized tests developed by testing companies and administered to large populations . We will focus attention towards generating results that enable boxes to be ticked rather than delivering real value for money and innovative research. The term "assessment" may be defined in multiple ways by different individuals or institutions, perhaps with different goals. Aspects of impact, such as value of Intellectual Property, are currently recorded by universities in the UK through their Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey return to Higher Education Statistics Agency; however, as with other public and charitable sector organizations, showcasing impact is an important part of attracting and retaining donors and support (Kelly and McNicoll 2011). 2007). These sometimes dissim- ilar views are due to the varied training and background of the writers in terms of their profession, concerned with different aspects of the education process. The process of evaluation involves figuring out how well the goals have been accomplished. , , . Although some might find the distinction somewhat marginal or even confusing, this differentiation between outputs, outcomes, and impacts is important, and has been highlighted, not only for the impacts derived from university research (Kelly and McNicol 2011) but also for work done in the charitable sector (Ebrahim and Rangan, 2010; Berg and Mnsson 2011; Kelly and McNicoll 2011). The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. However, the Achilles heel of any such attempt, as critics suggest, is the creation of a system that rewards what it can measure and codify, with the knock-on effect of directing research projects to deliver within the measures and categories that reward. Muffat says - "Evaluation is a continuous process and is concerned with than the formal academic achievement of pupils. When considering the impact that is generated as a result of research, a number of authors and government recommendations have advised that a clear definition of impact is required (Duryea, Hochman, and Parfitt 2007; Grant et al. By evaluating the contribution that research makes to society and the economy, future funding can be allocated where it is perceived to bring about the desired impact. This petition was signed by 17,570 academics (52,409 academics were returned to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise), including Nobel laureates and Fellows of the Royal Society (University and College Union 2011). RAND Europe, Capturing Research Impacts. Capturing data, interactions, and indicators as they emerge increases the chance of capturing all relevant information and tools to enable researchers to capture much of this would be valuable. While looking forward, we will be able to reduce this problem in the future, identifying, capturing, and storing the evidence in such a way that it can be used in the decades to come is a difficulty that we will need to tackle. Metrics have commonly been used as a measure of impact, for example, in terms of profit made, number of jobs provided, number of trained personnel recruited, number of visitors to an exhibition, number of items purchased, and so on. Despite many attempts to replace it, no alternative definition has . 4 0 obj Other approaches to impact evaluation such as contribution analysis, process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, and theory-based evaluation designs (e.g., Stern, Stame, Mayne, Forss, & Befani, 2012) do not necessarily employ explicit counterfactual logic for causal inference and do not introduce observation-based definitions. This might include the citation of a piece of research in policy documents or reference to a piece of research being cited within the media. Any information on the context of the data will be valuable to understanding the degree to which impact has taken place. 1. 0000007967 00000 n 0000007559 00000 n A total of 10 Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) were selected to perform semi-automatic segmentation of the condyles by using three free-source software (Invesalius, version 3.0.0, Centro de Tecnologia da . The Value of Public Sector R&D, Assessing impacts of higher education systems, National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, Through a Glass, Darkly: Measuring the Social Value of Universities, Describing the Impact of Health Research: A Research Impact Framework, LSE Public Policy Group. 0000008241 00000 n The definition of health is not just a theoretical issue, because it has many implications for practice, policy, and health services. Teresa Penfield, Matthew J. Baker, Rosa Scoble, Michael C. Wykes, Assessment, evaluations, and definitions of research impact: A review, Research Evaluation, Volume 23, Issue 1, January 2014, Pages 2132, https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvt021. The understanding of the term impact varies considerably and as such the objectives of an impact assessment need to be thoroughly understood before evidence is collated. Search for other works by this author on: A White Paper on Charity Impact Measurement, A Framework to Measure the Impact of Investments in Health Research, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Reports, Estimating the Economic Value to Societies of the Impact of Health Research: A Critical Review, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Panel on Return on Investment in Health Research, Making an Impact.
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