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After the Course

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Importance of Evaluation

It’s not enough to think you’ve written a good course, you need to seek feedback and evaluate the course properly. In most cases, to encourage the candidates to be honest in their responses, it is best for the evaluation sheets to be anonymous (that is without the candidate’s name).

There are a number of ways that you can evaluate, each with advantages and disadvantages. A summary is given below.

1. Evaluation at the end of the course

  • allows learners to comment while it’s still fresh in their minds
  • ensures you get feedback from every learner
  • could give valuable feedback on how to improve the course
  • the course is finished; learners want to go home and may try to complete the evaluation as quickly as possible rather than as truthfully as possible
  • the learners may have enjoyed themselves and their evaluation reflects this rather than the amount they have learned or the content of the course (“happy sheets”)
  • learners may like the Trainer and wish to please him / her (“happy sheets”)
  • learners may be intimidated by the Trainer and not wish to add to animosity / conflict.

2. Follow-up evaluation after a period of time

  • get more accurate reflection of what was learned in relation to the role they currently do
  • opportunity to answer any queries that may have come up since the course
  • if evaluation is done by a neutral person, then learners will not feel any constraints about expressing their true opinions
  • may be difficult to get hold of learners or to get them to participate in the evaluation
  • learners may have forgotten the detail of the course (which actually reflects the relevancy of the content)
  • learners’ opinions may have been influenced by post-course discussions with their peers.

3. Research into effectiveness of the course

  • results would be of interest to a large international audience
  • could give valuable feedback on how to improve the course
  • would need to be a study devised by trained researcher, with careful planning over the key areas the course is attempting to improve.