April 10, 2016

How to make the most out of your training survey

After hard work your training is designed, developed and implemented but do you truly know if it's working?
Capturing feedback and data from learners is an important first step to evaluate your training program but which questions should you ask? There are dozens of forms and various ways of using them, some are effective and some are not. Donald Kirkpatrick himself, author of "Evaluating training programs" summarizes how to design effective Level 1 (L1) evaluations, also known as reaction sheets amongst instructional designer, which can be broken down to:

1. Determine what you want to find out.
2. Design a form that will quantify this data.
3. Set standards and measure the reaction against them.

This will enable you to quantify information for stakeholders concerned about the training, to whom you can communicate reaction as appropriate. If your findings do not match expectations, take appropriate actions. It will also allow trainers, in case you're evaluating an instructor-led training, to do their job better by getting direct feedback from their learners. Last but not least, giving learners the chance to leave written comments and suggestions will build a gold mine of ideas that will help you to raise the bar and implement solutions that you might not have captured during your analysis and planning prior to rolling out the training.

L1 evaluations can be an obsolete formality or an effective tool for continuous improvement. It's up to you to ask the right questions, so you can make the most out of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment