ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the literature on evaluation, with a summary of program evaluation, and some definitions that will be helpful in the presentation of the following arguments. It discusses a little further by seeking to unpack the characteristics of evaluation in an education context, in order to identify clearly the scope of this work, and discusses overlaps with other areas of scholarship. The chapter utilizes the term evaluation research simply to capture the idea that investigations of e-learning will often involve a mix of evaluation and research activities that can be applied throughout the e-learning life cycle. A practitioner may carry out an investigation that has the dual aims of improving the educational design of an e-learning environment and determining its effectiveness. Both practice and evaluation research associated with e-learning can draw on a range of discipline areas such as education, sociology, psychology, information technology, computer science, information systems and design, to name just a few.
