What is Evaluation?
Evaluation is the very basis of all training. Training is
costly, not only in design, preparation and training time, but in
loss of production time as well.
In fact, training is VERY, VERY expensive. It is important
then to determine whether the investment made in training has shown
any return.
We follow the standard South African practices with regard to
evaluation of training, and that in turn follows the processes
proposed by Donald Kirkpatrick back in the 1950's
Kirkpatrick saw evaluation taking place on four levels and in
four different time frames:
- Course reaction - this is the feel-good test. the
delegates fill in forms at the end of the course and state how
happy or unhappy they feel about the conduct of the course.
- Assessment - this takes place during training (formative
assessment) and after training (summative assessment), and is
governed by the Assessment Guide for the training course.
- Impact on the workplace - this takes the form of an impact
study on the department, the worker's colleagues and the
departmental results.
- Return on Investment - this can only be calculated at the
end of a period that allows for the training to realise its
impact, usually after a year.
The most common formula for ROI is
[(monetary benefits -
cost of the training) ÷ cost of the training] x 100
This formula works in most commercial applications but there are
interesting ways to apply this evaluation of ROI to cultural
industries applications, funded interventions, broadcasting and
film.
it is not so much the accuracy of the mathematics, but the fact
that the formula to be used is agreed in advance as the means by
which the training will be evaluated.
Evaluation Resources
Fred Nichols
2000, an interesting essay on the perspectives
Evaluating Training and Results - Carter McNamara- good resources
Ten Rules for
Perfect Evaluations - Jay MacNaught
Changing ways
of Evaluating Training - Steven Brown
International books on Evaluation
South African books on Evaluation
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