5 Responses

1. 100%

   For face to face courses; 

   At the end of the day I simply say to people,

   "As you know, no one gets out of a training event alive without filling in a form.  Here are the forms, so as soon as you have completed yours, leave it on the desk there and then you are free to go"

    

   I then stand by the door ready to shake hands and say a cheery Goodbye to each of the delegates as they leave.

    

   Being 6 foot 2 and 18.5 stone and bald and ex-Army I always get 100% completion rate……but being such a nice guy I think I generally get honest responses!

   For virtual classroom events;

   I tell folk at the end that I will send them a form to complete.

   I email it the next working day

   I follow it up to show that I meant it

   To date I’ve had a 100% return rate

   PS with regard to the value of the information on the form; if you don’t ask "good" questions, you don’t get "good" answers…..and as you say, that is another topic entirely!

    

   I hope this helps

   Rus

   http://www.coach-and-courses.com

2. Certificate

   Couple of things I do to get 100% return rate…

   • Give forms out at the beginning not the end…
   • Remind them in the middle of the course…
   • No feedback form…no certificate…

    

    

    

3. 100% without really trying!

   i always get a 100% return rate but have never made a stipulation that this is the case…

   the type of questions you ask on the form always helps – i try to go for reflective practice and find that people are more keen to complete the form as it asks them to think about what they have actually learned and what they will do differently in the workplace as a result (and compare it to their pre-course questionnaire which asks them to think about what they want to get out of it before they attend) rather than the standard questions about rating the room and the lunch.

   i do however stipulate to the trainers i contract in that they timetable sufficient time at the end of the day for people to complete them rather than wait till the last minute when people are rushing of to catch buses/trains, pick the kids up etc

   i also make sure that any other forms they have to complete such as E&D monitoring are completed before they attend so they havent got lots to fill in at the end of the day…

   plus, i have a post box in the training room that people can post them into if they dont want to hand them directly to the trainer (delegates can be shy about having to do this as they’re writing about someone and then putting it in their hand!) and i hope this enables them to be as honest as possible.

   Hope this helps

4. Initial feedback forms

   I agree with the first three replies in that for face to face I would always expect a 100% return using some of the techniques already supplied. In addition I am an in house trainer and people know that if they provide feedback it is acted upon when they speak to colleagues who later attend the same course. Achieving a 100% return is of little value unless the questions asked are of some use when received. Far too many forms that I have seen are almost completely useless in that they focus on aspects irrelavent to the training and on things the trainer cannot influence. In addition I have seen very few questionnaires which ask the delegate to comment on their own performance in the training which is a critical area when building an increased sense of ownership for personal development. My own form asks the delegates to first allocate a score for the course and then to apportion the level of responsibility if there is a score of less than 100% between the trainer and themselves. Most delegates go 50/50 or place a higher degree of responsibility with themselves listing things like poor or no preparation, not doing required pre-work, not being attentive or not going for it during exercises. This process does not absolve the trainer of their repsonsibility, it does make a lot of delegates aware of their responsibility in the learning process and enable sthem to identify what they can do better next time.

   Cheers.

   Nick   

5. 100% response rate

   Howie

   Let me add to the consensus – 100%. I would suggest you give people time to complete the form as the penultimate part of the programme. This is you don’t get people rushing to fill them in just so they can get away any earlier.

   However, the very fact you ask suggests to me you are asking people to return these forms some time after the event. There is merit in this approach if you wish to combine an assessment of reactions (a considered response with the benefit of reflection rather than an immediate reaction) with some other form of evaluation or activity (such as supporting learning transfer. The down side is that you will get a much lower response rate, and potentially a distorted representation of the target group (those who most loved or hated it are mostly likely to want to respond, those with most time or sense of obligation are most likely to actually do it). On balance, I think most favour a 100% response gathered when things are fresh.

   There are a number of factors that affect post-event responses. These include the culture of the organisation (responses tend to be higher in disciplined organisations such as the police), the sense of closeness to the training (if know and like the training team and feel a sense of loyalty then responses go up, if the trainer is an external supplier who you have never seen before and will never see again, responses go down), the degree of endorsement and encouragement (if the accompanying letter is signed by a senior boss, and the line manager chases responses, rates go up), the perceived simplicity of the questionnaire and how long it takes to fill in, the medium (online survey tools now do better than paper questionaires you have to post back), how much time has passed since the event, the degree of impact the learning has, whether previous responses have disappeared into a black hole and no change has been obvious, the number of other surveys went to people in the few days beforehand, the time of year, and so on.

   Because of all these factors, the range of possible responses is vast – from about 1% to 95% – so an average is not going to be that useful for you. More useful would be to set a target of increasing the response rate each month for the next 6 months and finding appropriate tactics to make that happen based on your inside knowledge of your organisation and the people in the target audience. Or, of course, do it live and 100%.

   Hope that helps

   Graham