What Is a Training Evaluation Checklist?
A training evaluation checklist is a tool used by training and HR managers to gather feedback from participants in a training or seminar. This makes it easier to identify skill gaps and issues and then work to improve training programs and the overall experience that these programs provide.
The three most important advantages of a training evaluation are the necessary feedback from the learner’s point of view, the motivation of the staff, and the constant optimization of the company.
A good training evaluation includes aspects such as: defining goals, personal impressions, the learning effectiveness, and practical orientation of the training.
By providing a training evaluation, you show attendees how important their opinions and suggestions are to you. On the one hand, the interaction shows genuine interest, and on the other hand, you get the chance to find ways to improve through ideas and constructive criticism.
This article covers:
1. The importance of a training evaluation form
2. The TOP 3 advantages of a training evaluation
3. Structuring a training evaluation checklist
4. 4 tips to writing an effective evaluation
5. The best times to ask for training feedback
6. More success with digital training evaluation feedback forms
Why Is a Training Evaluation so Important?
Seminars and training courses run through all areas of life, whether in education or in the workplace. Analyzing this training in the form of feedback on the seminar is an important way to identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. The evaluation process is essential to assess the effectiveness of training, improve the overall quality of work, and boost employee morale and motivation by involving them in the development of training programs and allowing them to maximize their learning.
What Are the Top 3 Benefits of Training Evaluation?
Seminar evaluations are not simply assessments of the skills of seminar leaders or whether the seminar is good enough to continue to be offered to future classes, but are used to consistently analyze the entire learning process. The stages of this process should be evaluated comprehensively whenever possible. You will also gain the following four benefits from good seminar evaluation:
1. Feedback from the Learner’s Perspective
Evaluating a seminar from a professional, pedagogical point of view alone is not very effective. It is the learning process as such, which is brought about by the seminar, that can best be assessed from the participants’ point of view. In this way, a realistic assessment of productivity is achieved.
2. Motivation of the Employees
Employees who are involved in the design process of the company, especially if it is significantly responsible for its success, are more motivated to perform at their best and thus feel valued. The joint creation of corporate culture results in an optimal reputation of the company in the long run.
3. Constant Optimization as Company Philosophy
Constant evaluation of processes also brings constant improvement. Instead of crisis meetings as a last resort for sorting out serious mistakes, problems are identified promptly and can be dealt with proactively.
How to Structure a Training Evalaution Checklist?
What the content of a training evaluation checklist, and thus the template, looks like depends heavily on the structure and content of the training. The same applies to the length of the questionnaire. In general, a training evaluation checklist should be well structured and kept as short as possible.
Frequently, the longer the questionnaire is, the fewer seminar participants feel like filling it out. Ultimately, this has a negative impact on the quality of the answers provided and, thus, on the assessment and interpretation of the results.
Accordingly, the training evaluation checklist should not contain too many questions and should preferably be equipped with simple questions and question types in order to obtain good usable data from a training evaluation. In terms of content, training questionnaires usually follow the following structure:
- Organization and General Conditions
This section is about the evaluation of the venue, seminar organization, equipment, and catering. The responses received give an impression of whether the environment, as well as the general conditions, create an appropriate learning atmosphere. - Seminar Leader
The seminar leader contributes decisively to the success of the seminar. Therefore, his/her competencies should be assessed after each event in order to constantly improve his/her teaching quality. The focus is on the evaluation of didactic teaching skills and social skills. - Content and Methodological Design
A seminar should be varied and provide added value for the participants. Therefore, it is best to ask before the event about the individual interests, wishes, and expectations. After the event, you then have the opportunity to measure the satisfaction and the degree of expectation fulfilled. - Praise, Criticism, and Opportunities for Improvement
It is in this section that the potential of the seminar evaluation lies. Ask directly what you can improve in the future on your course. Only through the constructive feedback received here from your participants can you constantly improve the quality of your training events. - General Information
At the end of the training feedback checklist, there is an opportunity to get more relevant information about the participant group. This includes, among other things, the reason for participation in the training, professional activity, and age. Such and similar information will help you to market your seminars to the target group.
What Are 4 Tips for Conducting an Effective Evaluation?
A seminar evaluation is half the battle for a successful company, but if crucial aspects are not evaluated, it’ll be impossible to get a complete picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the training process. The following 4 tips will help you to structure your seminar evaluation clearly and sensibly and to ask for the right information.
1. Define Goals and Objectives
What do you want to have achieved by the end of the seminar? Higher profits? Increase production? Reduce costs in production and operation? Improve quality and increase sales? Reduce employee turnover? These questions are crucial to determine which seminar evaluation results have the greatest impact on employees and the company and which gaps need to be closed and prioritized.
A clear idea of what you want to achieve at the end of the seminar helps you to plan, prepare and bundle key processes that are to go in the right direction.
2. Personal Impressions
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the course? What more should the seminar leader do? What do the participants like least? Communication is a vital component to getting the most out of your evaluation, so you should be open to receiving feedback from the participants on each seminar.
The information gathered helps the seminar team to think about what needs to be improved and to evaluate themselves in order to become more effective seminar leaders. Ask employees for their views on the seminar leader, topic, materials and resources, seminar location, presentation, and overall seminar experience. Feedback from the participants helps to identify the gaps in the seminar and the necessary changes in methodology.
3. Determine Learning Effectiveness
What exactly did the participants learn and what didn’t they learn? Have they achieved the course objectives? It is best to have a list of specific learning objectives for each seminar unit, which you can review at the end of each seminar. This will help you identify important topics that may be missing from the seminar. Measure the learning effects through exercises, a pop quiz, lectures, and other mental activities.
4. Measure the Practicability of the Seminar
What skills can the participant learn and apply in the workplace? How does the seminar affect performance? Has the knowledge acquired in the training room been transferred into practice? This step is one of the most challenging, but also one of the most rewarding outcomes of a training program. Evaluate the behavior of the trainees and observe whether they have applied what they have learned to become more competent in their job.
When Should You Seek out Feedback for the Training?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to finding the best time to solicit feedback from your seminar’s participants, and how often. There are four different ways that we’ll introduce you to below. We recommend first trying out what works best for you and your events before settling on any one strategy.
1. After the Event
Often training feedback is gathered after the event is over or even sometimes a few days later. After the event, the participants have a finalized opinion about the content conveyed and the general conditions found.
The disadvantage of this variant is that many may not feel like answering a questionnaire directly afterward. If the survey takes place only a few days later, it can be that the participants have already forgotten key points or moved on from the event, so don’t be surprised if participation in the survey is lower than you expected.
2. During the Seminar
Another option is to hand out a short training evaluation form after each break to get specific feedback on the individual training topic blocks.
The short questionnaires increase the motivation of the seminar participants to answer them. This increases your participation rate and the quality of the answers.
3. Before the Last Program Point
If you schedule to do the training evaluation form right before the last program point, you can be sure that all participants are still on-site and will give you the desired attention. With this variant, you will probably achieve the highest participation rate with only one distributed training evaluation form for the seminar.
4. During and After the Training
You can also combine different strategies for obtaining feedback. For instance, you can gather topic-relevant feedback in the middle of the seminar and general feedback after the training session. During the event, keep the training evaluation form short and supplement them with a longer survey a few days later. Then compare the results. You might find that you get more valuable information using this method.
Benefits of a Digital Training Evaluation Form Tool
A digital training evaluation checklist makes it easy to assess and evaluate seminar plans. With Lumiform’s powerful form app, you can conduct seminar evaluations anytime, anywhere, using your smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
Lumiform allows you to share reports on the spot and share them instantly with just one click. When you use the digital tool for your training evaluation forms, here’s what you can do:
- Conduct training evaluations anytime and anywhere.
- Instantly evaluate training programs to meet participants learning needs.
- Schedule training for new hires to prepare employees for their roles.
- Automatically create and instantly share training evaluation reports with learning and development teams.
- Extensive analytics help discover trends in a training’s assessment early.
