Dimensions of Level 1 Evaluation

Training evaluation is often incorrectly thought of as a satisfaction survey at the end of a workshop, course, or program. While evaluation is often done with some type of survey, commonly referred to crudely as a “smiley sheet,” there are many dimensions other than participants’ satisfaction with our program that we can measure. These include the following:

1. Learning. How much do participants believe they’ve learned in the program?
2. Content. What are the suitability and quality of the program’s content?
3. Materials. What are the suitability and quality of program materials, such as the participant guide, handouts, slides, posters, equipment, tools, etc.?
4. Exercises. What are the suitability and quality of the practice activities and exercises conducted during the program?
5. Relevance. How relevant is the program’s content to the work that participants currently do or expect to do in their jobs or elsewhere?
6. Intention to Apply. How likely do participants believe they are to use what they’ve learned in the program in their current or future work?
7. Duration. Is the length of the program suitable for the content and exercises it contains?
8. Pacing. Is the overall pace at which program content and exercises are facilitated conducive to participants' learning?
9. Facilitation. How effective are the trainer or faculty in conducting the program and facilitating the learning process?
10. Setting. How conducive is the physical or virtual learning environment to the overall learning experience?
11. Administration. What is the overall effectiveness of the team who coordinated and supported the program’s communication, registration, and other logistics?

By keeping track of the program’s performance in each dimension, we can easily identify where the program does well and where it needs improvement. Whereas a simple “smiley sheet” will only tell us whether and how much participants liked the program, a segmented approach will allow us to parse learner feedback into dimensions and explore with precision the aspects of the program that participants perceived positively or negatively.