An Overview of Microcomputers and Evaluation Research
Abstract
An Overview of Microcomputers and Evaluation Research SAGE Publications, Inc.1986DOI: 10.1177/0193841X8601000501 Stuart S.Nagel University of Illinois-Urbana / he purpose of this special issue of Evaluation Review is to ~ discuss how microcomputers are and can be relevant to evaluation research and program evaluation. The symposium emphasizes the relevance of three kinds of software, including software designed to aid in (1) making decisions, (2) establishing relations, and (3) gathering information. The symposium also refers to the relevance of hardware, word processing, and teaching I The order in which the articles are presented involves starting with the software that is closest to evaluative, decision-aiding software. This includes software that may have been originally designed for business or personal decision making, but that can be applied to the kind of public- sector projects emphasized in evaluation research. In order to make evaluative decisions, however, one needs to know the relations between alternative decisions or projects and the goals one is seeking to achieve. That is where software to aid in establishing relations comes in. To establish relations, however, one needs to have information concerning past experience, authoritative studies, and/ or statistical data. That brings in software designed to aid in gathering