At the end of the day, the learner’s feedback regarding your training program is one of the measures of how successful it is. And the best course evaluation tool you can use to validate this is a post-training evaluation questionnaire.
What’s commonplace though is that these post-training learner surveys get less attention compared to the development of learning content and course materials (or sometimes omitted entirely). Truth be told, it should actually be the other way around – these evaluations should be done before any content is created.
Like any design concept, you always need to start with the end in mind.
This mindset also applies to your course design – you need to begin with your learners’ goals in mind. Therefore, it does make sense that you create a post-training evaluation questionnaire alongside the definition of a program’s learning goals.
These two need to complement each other, with your eLearning questionnaire validating if your course was able to attain its objectives – from the learner’s perspective.
Since evaluation is a crucial part of course design, here are five aspects that you need to include when you create an eLearning evaluation questionnaire for your learners
1.Effectiveness
Effectiveness is a critical element when you measure the performance of a training program. It is also the most important aspect when it comes to creating a post-training evaluation questionnaire. It establishes your learners’ perception of whether or not the course helped them attain their learning objectives.
Effectiveness is a critical element when you measure the performance of a training program.Share on
Moreover, the learners’ opinions on the effectiveness of eLearning courses are an indicator of how relevant the lesson is for them. It will tell you if they think that the skills they’ve learned can actually be helpful for their everyday work.
This part of the survey asks if the learners’ WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) question was addressed and if they are satisfied with what they have learned.
You can start by asking the learners how effective the course or program was in achieving their learning objectives. You can also ask what they think the best and worst aspects of the program are and some suggestions on how to improve those.
2. Comprehension
The comprehension aspect of a post-training evaluation questionnaire refers to the effectiveness of the course delivery. This section in your learner satisfaction survey asks questions about the way the course content was delivered.
This element also includes the conciseness and clarity of content. Was the subject matter easy for the learners to follow and understand? Was the wording of any written materials clear? Were the multimedia materials clearly visible and audible?
For face-to-face or synchronous training, this part of the survey also includes the manner in which the lesson was facilitated. Was the trainer knowledgeable in the subject matter?
Was the facilitator able to explain the topic in a way that the audience can relate to? Did the instructor offer enough support to the learners during the session? These are some of the questions you can include in your post-training evaluation questionnaire.
3. Attractiveness
The course’s overall look and feel is also an integral part of a post training evaluation questionnaire. Any type of course-related material like participant handouts, presentation slides, or multimedia fall under this aspect. This is a critical component – particularly for eLearning courses – because it tells you if your interface, learning environments, and multimedia resources are aesthetically appealing.
Since eLearning is a medium that’s heavily dependent on visual design principles, course creators need to pay a lot of attention to the attractiveness factor.
While it may seem trivial to most, the learners’ exposure to the look and feel of your course can greatly affect the learning experience. Thus, having well-crafted multimedia resources also matter – especially for self-paced, asynchronous courses.
When you solicit feedback, you can ask your learners to rate the multimedia components (video, audio, and images) of the program based on how attractive they think those are. You can also solicit suggestions on how to make the course more appealing in terms of visual and/or auditory aspects.
4. Engagement
No one wants to just be a passenger in their own learning; learner engagement must be a priority for any type of course. For face-to-face sessions, engagement can come in the form of active learning approaches like simulations, activities, and collaborative work. For eLearning, these can be in the form of games, interactive quizzes, and branching scenarios.
For your post-training evaluation questionnaire, you can ask your learners to rate the course based on how engaging it is. Another question you can ask is how satisfied they are with the interactivity provided by the course.
5. Suggestions
Of course, no post-training evaluation questionnaire is complete without a part that asks for suggestions. The main challenge, however, is that this part is usually skipped by learners. Most of the time, these open-ended questions require them to take a little bit of time to come up with responses.
A friendly tip on how to do this: require the learners to put at least three suggestions to improve training effectiveness. If they don’t put anything in the suggestion “box,” the system will not allow them to proceed and complete the course.
For your ‘suggestion box,’ you can ask your learners on what changes they would like to apply to the program as it is. You can also ask for future ideas on program improvement.
Conclusion
Post-training evaluation is a critical part of any training program. Not only does it give you an idea of what the learners thought of the course, but more importantly, it tells you what’s working and what’s not. Furthermore, it gives you a valuable insight of the training program from the learner’s perspective.
You always need to remember that the learner, not the content, is the main star of the show – and your learners must not be treated as just an afterthought. Getting learner feedback about your training courses or programs must be prioritized.
So, always remember to include these five elements when you create your post-training evaluation questionnaire.
(And to make things more specific, head over to our TalentLMS blog post for the actual questions you should include in your post-training evaluation survey.)
