Points of Distinction: Evaluating Quality Outreach

What is quality outreach? How do you define it? How do you document the process and outcomes ? How do you evaluate it at the project, academic unit, and individual faculty member levels? Michigan State University unit and faculty leaders - participants in a provost-charged working committee on evaluating quality outreach - share their work that has resulted in a guidebook for planning and evaluating outreach. Four dimensions of outreach quality are identified - significance, contextualization, scholarly characteristics and contributions, and external and internal impacts. In addition, components within each of these quality dimensions are suggested. Examples are provided of both qualitative and quantitative indicators of these dimensions, and these indicators may be used as evidence and cited in documentation.