STAGE 1 - Improving Workplace Education Evaluation

BACKGROUND (Cont'd)

Key Success Factors

o Think of the audience

Consider who you want to demonstrate the effects of workplace education to and get them to buy into the process of evaluation. This is not just a matter of getting them to agree with your methodology. It also may be necessary for them to provide you with evaluation data. For instance, if you want to know how a course has affected workplace performance, ask for the line manager's views on this. We will provide you with data gathering tools to bring others into the process.

o Get the science right

Try to understand the statistical bases for making inferences from data that you collect. See our lists of references for several sources to help you here. A good way to demonstrate impacts is to contrast the experience of those who took the workplace education with those that did not (a control group). Also, most spreadsheet and statistical packages will include tutorials on basic statistical concepts. It is important to decide how you will measure as this will affect the type of statistical analysis that you might want to undertake.

o Develop a variety of data sources

Think of yourself as a trial lawyer who is presenting a case to a judge-the more evidence you have the more likely you are to convince the judge of your case. Bringing together a variety of sources allows you to validate your evaluation and get it accepted by other people in the organization.

You will be interested in "hard" data and "soft" data. "Hard" data is that type of data that easily lends itself to quantification, like course completion rates. "Soft" data typically relies on impressions or attitudes. With the right data gathering tools, you can capture soft data in such a way as to make it "hard".