All of your employees have completed their requiredeLearning, and they all scored 80 percent or higher on the test at the end ofthe training. Was the eLearning successful?
That depends. Completing an eLearning course does notguarantee that an employee has learned anything. Passing a standardized test orother objective assessment might not mean anything either: A learner’s abilityto correctly answer multiple-choice or true-false questions doesn’t mean that shecan apply that knowledge to doing her job. If the test is administeredimmediately after the learner completes the eLearning course, all it measuresis her short-term memory; that student might not be able to score as well aweek later.
How can managers move beyond multiple-choice tests to moredeeply evaluate the effectiveness of eLearning? Here are seven strategies for measuringemployee learning:
- Clearly define learning outcomes and a means to evaluate success at thebeginning of your eLearning design process. Have a clear goal: Our employeeswill be able to do ____. This gives you something to measure. If the goal is tolist and describe 10 financial services products your company offers, then astandardized test might be the best tool to measure learners’ success. But if youneed employees to perform a complex multistep process or apply “soft” skillslike empathy to problem-solving, a multiple-choice test is not the rightinstrument.
- Measure and certify competence in a skill orperformance of a procedure by observing and evaluating employees as theyperform that skill. Ask learners to complete a project (alone or in their workteams), submit a video of themselves performing a skill, or have an evaluator observethem at work. If an in-person or video observation is not feasible, build aperformance aspect into the training. Some serious learning games simulate andtest real skills.
- You can conduct subjective assessment using pre-and post-tests that ask questions about employees’ attitudes and beliefs. Thesetests measure the impact of learning more deeply than closed-ended questionswith a single correct response.
- In-person training includes interaction betweenan instructor and learners, providing opportunities for instructors to gaugewhether learners comprehend and have internalized the knowledge. When dealingwith skills acquisition or harder-to-measure soft skills, these conversationscan be crucial—and difficult to replicate online. Simulations of commonworkplace scenarios, such as responding to irate customers or aiding franticcallers to an assistance hotline, offer opportunities for learners to practicesoft skills like problem solving and communication. With practice, employees’confidence that they can field such calls from actual customers increases.Managers can use a “dashboard” in the eLearning module to track employees’progress and see whether they’re choosing appropriate responses in variousscenarios. At the completion of training, real-life role-playing among staff,online or in person, can reinforce those skills before learners are turnedloose on real customers.
- Teaching others is an effective way to bothsolidify and demonstrate mastery of a skill. Asking employees to teach newlyacquired skills to their colleagues and encouraging sharing of information onintra-office learning networks can show managers whether employees haveassimilated, and are correctly applying, information conveyed in eLearning.
- Asking learners to evaluate an eLearning module,both immediately after they complete training and after an interval of several daysor weeks, can provide important information about its effectiveness. During andjust after the training, employees’ responses can indicate whether the eLearningwas engaging and whether the learners believe it was worthwhile. After aninterval, employees can report whether they believe that they’ve used anythingthey learned in the training to do their jobs; it also provides an opportunityto gauge how “sticky” the learning was.
- If learning goals have direct links to skills ortasks that are part of a learner’s job, evaluation of the employee’sperformance pre- and post-training should indicate whether the training had anyimpact. Self-evaluation, though not completely reliable, is also a measure.Does the employee have increased confidence in his ability to perform aprocedure after the training? Is that confidence and improved ability reflectedin his performance?
Simply checking the box that employees have completed theironline training is not enough. Clearly defining eLearning goals and outcomes—aswell as describing what success looks like—are essential precursors to creatingeffective eLearning and assessing employees’ progress.
