OTIS Evaluation Guide (PDF) - California Department of Public Health

Chapter 4
Developing The Evaluation Plan
In this chapter we will discuss:
• The rationale and structure for completing your evaluation plan in OTIS
• How to determine the appropriate study design and build its components
• Instruments and methods to collect data
• Sampling plans and selection of appropriate sample size
• How to identify the type of analysis to be done and how to disseminate results
• Helpful checklists for process data collection and outcome data collection information
Glossary
The following terms will be discussed in their respective sections of this chapter:
census comparison over time
comparison with other groups control group
convenience sample focus group
experimental design intact group
intercept survey intervention group
key informant interview non-experimental design
purposive sample quasi-experimental design
random assignment random cluster sample
simple random sample stratified sample
study design
In addition, terms that are defined in more detail will have an icon next to it, signaling you to look for the
definitions at the end of the chapter.
If you’ve been waiting for more evaluation theory—the meaty stuff—this is the chapter for you. Additional
evaluation resources and technical assistance (TA) is available to TCS-funded projects from the TC Evaluation
Center (TC Evaluation Center; http://www.tobaccoeval.ucdavis.edu). If you are a competitive grantee applicant,
you should consult with an evaluator for help.
In addition to instructions for entering information in OTIS, this chapter provides a rationale for the evaluation
framework employed by OTIS. You will be asked to analyze this information and answer more complex OTIS
questions in order to build your evaluation plan.
On the other hand, if you’re not into theory, it’s good to know that OTIS will prompt you through to the correct
part of the program to build your evaluation plan. You are safely absolved from knowing all the details behind
the OTIS data entry screens, leave that stuff to the people designing OTIS.
OTIS Evaluation Guide • March 2007
75