Which Questions You Should Ask in A Training Evaluation Survey?
A survey of the participants is one of the most frequent methods of evaluating the efficiency of a training course. Surveys are the simplest, most time- and cost-effective technique of determining whether or not the settings were beneficial to learners. In this post, we’ll look at the fundamentals of surveying and provide 10 sample survey questions that could be included in a training effectiveness study.
Why Offer a Survey?
Don Kirkpatrick established the concept of surveying participants in 1959, and it is the first step of his four-level strategy to evaluate training success. Kirkpatrick’s system, dubbed the Kirkpatrick Training Evaluation Model, provides a thorough method of evaluating training success. What can a survey tell us?
A survey can offer valuable data about how participants responded to the training. It can help identify things such as:
- Which courses were popular and therefore likely to be well-attended?
- Were there any barriers to learning?
- Were there any clues as to how future training sessions could be improved?
- Which learning needs did the training fail to meet?
The following ten sample questions should provide a helpful example of the types of questions you may wish to include in a participant response survey.
Question 1. Did the training content meet your expectations?
This is a great question to ask as it helps you identify whether the training content matched the participants’ expectations.
If you wish, you could include an optional open-ended question such as ‘Why or why not?’ and provide space for a written answer.
Question 2. Was the size of your training group appropriate?
This question helps illuminate whether the learners felt comfortable in their groups. If the group size was too large, the participants may not feel as though their needs weren’t met.
Question 3. How would you rate the quality of the training?
If a course received many low ratings, you could reasonably assume that the course provider or the content didn’t meet the needs of the learners.
Question 4. Was the mix of presentations and activities suitable?
Most training courses feature a mixture of instructor-led presentation sessions and activities where the trainees work individually or in groups on certain tasks.
Question 5. How would you rate the quality of the instructor?
Many low ratings may indicate that the instructor wasn’t well suited to delivering the course. Many high ratings would indicate that the learners felt comfortable with the quality of the instructor.
Question 6. Did you learn anything new?
This will give valuable data as to the areas that the trainees felt offered the most value.
Question 7. Was the training relevant to your needs?
To dig down into the details, you need to understand whether the learners felt the course was a valuable use of their time.
Question 8. Was the course practical and/or easy to apply?
This question helps you understand how the trainees felt about the course.
Question 9. Would participants recommend the training to colleagues?
High numbers of participants indicating that they wouldn’t recommend a course is a sign that the training failed to live up to expectations or was poorly planned and implemented.
Question 10. Do you have any suggestions to improve this course?
From the participant’s perspective, it’s important that they feel able to express their opinions about a training course in an open and unconstrained manner.
To sum up, there are many questions for surveys for you to ask but to be effective in this area you have to choose your questions wisely and you have to pick the right questions to ask for the right cause because if you don’t pick the right questions for the right subject it can be very tough you to improve yourself about what went wrong.
If you want to read more about training, you may also be interested in this article: 11 Reasons Why Online Training Is Better Than Classroom Learning?
