Course description
Technology Evaluation for Global Development
When a person lives on less than $2 a day — as some 2.7 billion people around the world do — there isn’t room for a product like a solar lantern or a water filter to fail. Investment in failing products undermines future innovation by reducing confidence and depleting scarce resources.
It’s a challenge faced every day by development agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and consumers themselves. With so many products on the market, how do you choose the right one?
This course, developed by MIT’s Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE) will explore the fundamentals of technology evaluation for global development. It includes a deep dive into CITE’s 3S methodology, looking at products from three angles:
- Suitability—does a product perform its intended purpose?
- Scalability—can the supply chain effectively reach consumers?
- Sustainability—is it a product that can be used correctly, consistently, and continuously over time?
This course is designed for academics and global development practitioners; those interested in conducting their own technology evaluations to promote data-driven decisions through research or development practice.
Upcoming start dates
Who should attend?
Prerequisites
None
Training content
- History of appropriate technology, the rise of technology use in global development
- History of evaluation, different styles of modern evaluation, and the definition of evaluation; how to conduct desk- and field-based scoping studies, and what a scoping study can teach you
- Methodology, research design, and applications for product suitability
- Methodology, research design, and applications for product scalability
- Methodology, research design, and applications for product sustainability
- How to complete an evaluation and summarize results for presentation to various audiences, how to generalize results, and alternative approaches to evaluation
Course delivery details
This course is offered through Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a partner institute of EdX.
10-12 hours per week
Costs
- Verified Track -$49
- Audit Track - Free
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