Evaluating Your Initiatives

Periodically, you should step back and honestly evaluate your e-learning initiatives. In doing so there are several results you should examine.

Have your enrollments increased, decreased or stayed relatively flat? Your learners are telling you something about your offerings. Word of mouth is communicating to you in a positive or negative way. People will endorse your selections if they feel that those offerings have value to their future success, and the attendant personal rewards.

Do your learners actually finish the e-learning programs assigned? Nationally, almost half do not. In this case the tracking results of your administrative system or LMS are making a valid assessment of the communication value of your offerings.

Are the trainees’ immediate supervisors happy or displeased with the transfer of knowledge from the classroom to the shop floor? If the e-learning you are offering does not translate into more efficient and effective on-the-job performance, that, too, is telling you something about the quality of your offerings. After all, the transfer of performance objectives in the classroom should have a direct correlation to the trainees’ performance in your plant. And their supervisors should be encouraged to give you feedback as they are the ones who will see a direct correlation between the training and the actual job performance.

Of course, there are other evaluation tools like cost control and time savings, but if you track the above three you’re going to have a pretty good idea. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll quickly know if your e-learning initiative was a success – or a failure. Ultimately, management will evaluate whether or not you have positively contributed to reduced expenses, increased revenues and/or increased market share.

– Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“AMERICA WILL CONTINUE TO BE BUILT BY THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”