I have to produce an evaluation report based on both the happy sheets and post course feedback on a company wide training programme. I am looking for an effective way of measuring the results. Doing a series of charts on the hard data is fine, but I would be grateful for examples of reports and suggestions of how to effectively present all the comments without just copying them out.
Vivienne Holmes
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Divide the comments into categories
I had to do this a while ago and was faced with the same problem when it came to the comments. When I looked at them I realised that many of them expressed similar responses or fell into one of about 6 categories, such as confidence, course content, areas for improvement and so on. At the end of the report I did include all the comments for fair representation (about 200 people participated in the evaluation)but divided them into these categories, that way if anyone wanted to see them they were there but in a manageable form. Throughout the body of the report itself I selected a few illustrative comments, and at the front of the report I had a one page summary which again included a few of the comments.
Why evaluate now?
This comment may be of no use to you Vivienne but it is intended to be constructive. I am surprised that you are being asked to write this report now – were you involved in the design of this programme or did you have a say in how to evaluate it? Whoever asked you to do this I would go back to them and say ‘what will you do with the results of my report?’ They should have an answer whether the report says the training was good or lousy. Will the report be used to learn something, will it improve future training – if not why bother?
Finally, tell them that evaluation has to start before the training, not after it, if it is to be of any use whatsoever.
Regards
Paul Kearns
Purpose of the Evaluation
It might also help to find out what the purpose is of the valuation; ie did it achieve its objectives, what use are the participants making of the learning, what has been the overall impact? (thise can be based on Kirkpatrick’s 4 levels); this can help identify what measures and qualitative data to ask, and as weel as combining them into categories as Claire suggests, you can present results with regard to the impact on the porganisation.