Today I am with a fab group of trainers in Manchester, looking at evaluation. I asked the group what they thought about evaluation having had time to consider all 4 levels of Kirkpatricks model and so here is an insight shared by one of the participants Adam Gilroy:
"As it is at the back end, we rarely give evaluation the thought it requires and in future I definitely will give it more thought".
My immediate thought turned to the use of the phrase "the back end" and herein lies the problem. Why are we only considering evaluation at the back-end and not at the front-end?
If we consider evaluation at the front end with needs analysis, we can see what is already in place that we can measure, to help in the evaluation process. Also in this way we can engage stakeholders at the start to support learners in:
- Pre-work
- Change in behaviours
- Post-learning follow up and coaching
- Measurement of the impact of the learning
So when you think of evaluation in the future, will it be at the back .... or front-end?
Comments
We have recently reviewed our Safeguarding materials and the methods of delivery and based on evaluation being front-end we are now expecting pre-work and post learning follow-up and participants have to complete work books which need to be signed off by line managers which clearly demonstrate how they are putting any learning into practice.
Hi Nikki, sounds like a really proactive way to embed learning. Have you had any challenges from learners in completing (or not completing) pre-work? Have you also had any challenges from the line managers in having to 'sign off' the workbooks?
Cheers
No challenges to date - and we normally expect the learners to complete a quiz early to check that they have completed the pre-work! We have used work books for some time as part of our Induction process, which require staff to carry out local research with a view to finding out about their role in context to the organisation, so line managers are used throughout by L&D practitioners.
Cheers
Front end every time :)
When working with stakeholders and discussing learning objectives, the question has to be asked "how will we know the objectives have been achieved and that our intervention has been successful?" (ie what will be different and when will the difference be noticeable; how will we be able to recognise or measure the difference and who will be able to see this difference or measure it?) From this knowledge, we can design in evaluation measures from the outset.
What the evaluation measures look like, depends very much on what we are hoping to achieve through the intervention.
When we measure to see whether the intervention was successful and who does the measuring is similarly dependent upon these early discussions.
It's interesting the latest CIPD research cites
We're on the right track but more work to be done :)