Essential Skills for Effective Evaluation in L&D

Developing essential skills to ensure effective evaluation is critical for the greater community around L&D as it ensures that learning programs are continuously improved and adapted to meet learners' needs. By prioritizing ongoing support and dynamic facilitation, L&D professionals can become more adept at conducting robust evaluations, leading to higher quality training programs, better learning outcomes, and a stronger overall impact of L&D initiatives. When L&D practitioners across the community possess strong evaluation skills, the entire field benefits from elevated standards and best practices. 

L&D professionals and organizations seeking effective training solutions greatly benefit from harnessing these essential evaluation skills. They can create more effective learning environments that drive development and performance. By mastering these skills, individual L&D leaders can ensure higher learner engagement, better knowledge retention, and a greater return on investment in their training programs. This focus on robust evaluation ultimately leads to more successful and impactful L&D initiatives. 

This blog will highlight the skills necessary for conducting robust evaluations with a focus on how ongoing support and dynamic facilitation can drive these skills. 

MEASURING YOUR SUCCESS 

Modern learners take responsibility for much of their own learning by creating their own learning pathways, exploring robust content, and interacting with other learners. Learners are essentially curating their own blended learning experiences and holding themselves accountable for much of the learning that is taking place. 

But how do we, as L&D professionals, evaluate our trainings to determine if they are actually successful? 

CREATING GOALS 

Some of us begin by creating our own learning goals. I might set the goal of mastering Articulate within the next three months; you might set the goal of expanding your Personal Learning Network (PLN) by next month; and we both might have the same goal of contributing 10% more of our time to careful curation of learning resources related to our respective areas of expertise. 

Our individual goals may start or end at the same point or overlap, and as we accomplish those goals, we will most likely establish new goals. When do we check to see what worked? 

SETTING COMPLETION DATES AND MILESTONES 

Within our goal setting, we most likely set completion dates or milestones along our learning pathways. It's usually something along the lines of this: “I will do X by Y date.” Attaching a date (or timeframe) to our goals makes them more measurable, right? Not necessarily. 

Some of us cherish those milestones and work straight through to reach them. Others might take a more meandering route along our learning journeys that delays reaching those set milestones by specific dates. Are we still working toward our goals? Are we still learning? You bet we are. 

Time is a factor, but progress is more important. When you set milestones, focus on desired outcomes and give yourself a bit of leeway with time. That is, unless, of course, you need deadlines to keep you on track! 

EMBRACING REFLECTION 

In this modern blended learning landscape, our milestones need to include moments of reflection and recognition. Reaching our goals is not enough to measure our success on the pathway—reflection, self-evaluation, conversation, and narrative are all parts of the journey. 

Take some time on a regular basis to stop and answer these questions:

• What am I trying to accomplish? 

• Why am I progressing along this pathway? 

• Have I passed any milestones along the way? 

• How did I manage to get to where I am now? 

• What conversations and interactions have I had? 

• What is helping me most as I work toward my goals? 

• What accomplishments can I highlight and share? 

• How should I adjust my pathway? 

As you work through these questions, be honest with yourself. Did you really spend two hours on Friday morning exploring blended learning news feeds? Did you ever get around to reading any of those microlearning articles you saved? 

Answers to all of these questions will help you determine how successful you have been along your learning journey and guide your next steps. 

ESTABLISHING FEEDBACK CHANNELS 

Self-reflection only goes so far. Since we know that feedback is an integral part of the learning process, we should partner with a peer, coach, or mentor as part of any evaluation. Sometimes that extra set of eyes or that difference of opinion, experience, or expertise can help you stay on track or find new avenues for learning.
 
Even modern learners, with all the initiative they take and options they have, require external motivation! We know that formative feedback keeps our learners engaged and involved. PLNs come in handy here, providing opportunities to connect, collaborate, share, and ask for feedback. Additionally, a mentor or coach can provide further perspective, including sharing success stories, lessons learned, and valuable guidance. Having someone tell you that you’re on the right track certainly helps! 

GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME 

What does all this add up to? 

As we try to evaluate the success of the modern learning campaigns that we engage with, we need to determine if we are any better at what we were trying to do than when we started out. Did something change? Did something improve? 

We will certainly be more proficient at measuring the success of our modern learning journeys if we take the time to create our own learning goals, establish milestones for progress, embrace reflection, and establish feedback channels along the way.

At InSync, emphasizing these essential skills for effective evaluation is part of our commitment to delivering high-quality virtual training solutions. Robust evaluation skills, both for checking learners' understanding and for understanding their own individual learning and training progress, enable our facilitators to provide ongoing support and adapt their techniques dynamically to meet the needs of diverse learners. This approach helps us maintain our standards for excellence and ensures that our training programs are both engaging and impactful while providing valuable insights and measurable results to our clients.

To improve your own skills, including those you'll need for evaluation, and lead your L&D teams to virtual classroom excellence check out our Virtual Learning Leader certification. Our specialized Evaluating Hybrid & Virtual Learning Workshop equips you to find actionable data that can truly inform your learning approach. We cut through the complexity to give you the tools to really understand what makes hybrid and virtual learning tick.  It might just be time for you to upskill!