Course 94-824 at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University taught by Matt Hannigan
Successful programs require more than just great ideas. From a program’s initial planning and design through its execution and evaluation, program managers must deftly deploy disparate skills and work closely with colleagues, board members, funders, and constituents to measure, understand, and discuss programmatic results.
In Creating Results-Oriented Programs, graduate students are introduced to tools and techniques to assist them in managing highly effective programs at small nonprofit and arts organizations. Students explore the connections between program theory, project budgets, requests for support, and reports on outcomes. Students develop skills needed to build measures for success into program activities and use quantitative and qualitative assessments to make strategic decisions before, during, and after implementation.
The learning objectives of this course are to enable students to:
- Articulate programmatic goals through a compelling theory of change;
- Apply the basic techniques of process and outcome evaluations;
- Gather and interpret relevant and useful program data;
- Provide tangible and specific information about program results to internal and external stakeholders; and,
- Bring an analytic and pragmatic approach to each stage in the lifecycle of a typical program at a small nonprofit or arts organization.
- Course Overview
- Course Framework
- Instructor Information
- Course Schedule
- Summary Course Calendar
- Week 1: Introductions / Course Overview / Program Entrepreneurs
- Week 2: Developing Program Theory & Logic Models
- Week 3: Establishing Measures of Success
- Week 4: Designing Experiments & Understanding Threats to Validity
- Week 5 of 6 / Weeks 5 of 7 & 6 of 7: Gathering Data, Communicating Results & Securing Resources to Lead Change
- Last Week: Final Project Due
- Course Policies & Procedures