Marc My Words: Own the Assessment, Not the Course

Think in a different way about the age-old question, “Which came first,the chicken or the egg?” Which comes first, the assessment (the test) or thecourse? Do you have to have the course before you know what to assess or test? Ormust you first define what you hope to accomplish—and how to best assess thataccomplishment—before you can build the course that gets you there?

I favor the latter. We ought not to proceed in any learning developmentproject until we know what defines success and how we will measure it (theassessment). Actually, the assessment may be more important than any trainingcourse or curriculum that supports it. Here’s why.

Results trump activity

Clients and customers look for results, not activity. Unfortunately, weoften get requests for training (“I want a course.”) without much concern forwhat it is to accomplish. We should push back, asking, “First, what do you wantto accomplish and how will you know you’ve done it?” If the client or customercan’t answer this question, any training activity we come up with will be arisky venture.

Assessment clarity clarifies learningstrategy

Jane Bozarth talked about this in April. Sometimes, clients or customers don’t know what type of learningsolution they want, or even what they should teach. But asking them first whatresults they require helps them to focus. From this statement of results, anassessment plan can evolve that literally prescribes the most appropriatelearning strategy to pursue. If you want to get your client or customer onboard—begin with the end in mind.

Assessment is what really matters to thepeople who really matter

If your focus is predominately on courseware, registrations, and hoursof training, etc., be careful. We certainly have to manage our operations well,but senior managers, customers, and clients—the people who pay us—are not toointerested in this (or at least they shouldn’t be). What they want is results. “Whatcan my people do now that they couldn’t do before?” they will ask. “How are ourlearning efforts affecting the performance of my business?” We constantly askfor a “seat at the table;” answering these questions is our ticket in.

Measuring competence is more valuable thantallying completions

What would you rather say is the result of your efforts in, forexample, sales training: a) “A thousand people completed our entry-level salescourse this year”; or b) “We were able to certify the sales performance ofthree hundred front-line sales professionals this year?” Of course, the answeris b, even if the numbers are less. But too often, we assume that takingtraining is the same as performance certification. This is dangerous. The firstis a measure of attendance; the second is a measure of competence. Showing upmeans very little if you don’t learn much. This gets into the touchy areas ofmandated training and whether course completions alone are legally defensibleif someone challenges an individual’s or organization’s actions. (This is worthdiscussing at length, but not here.)

Certification is a big deal

Let’s talk more about certification. Increasingly, organizations arerealizing that controlling the means to demonstrate competence may be more importantthan controlling the means that prepare people for such demonstrations.

The American Bar Association and the American Medical Association issuestandards that influence Bar and MCAT exams, but they don’t directly offerpreparatory services, leaving that to individual law and medical schools. TheEducational Testing Service doesn’t run a single school; but it owns the SATexam, and that, as any high school student will tell you, is plenty. Manyuniversities may freely offer their courses online, but you pay big time fortheir certification—the degree. The Motor Vehicle Department doesn’t care howyou learned to drive, but you’d better pass their road test. Even in our field,both ASTD and ISPI offer certification, and while they do offer some optional preparatoryprograms, they accept that people can achieve certification whether or not theyhad formal training by anyone.

What does this all mean for us?

If we believe, as we should, that certifying what people can do, ratherthan just reporting on the courses they have taken, should become the mainstayof evaluating the worthiness of any training or learning function, it then becomesessential to own and enhance the assessment process as a matter of strategy—andperhaps survival. To effectively certify competence is a huge advantage, notjust for your training or learning function, but also for your entireorganization.

Technical and instructional expertise may abound, but many training or learningfunctions have a dearth of knowledge in evaluation and certification. We talkabout evaluation all the time, but do we consistently do a good job at it? Probablynot—and this is a big problem. Writing a few multiple-choice questions at theend of a training module is not nearly enough. Evaluation and assessment ismore important than ever, and it’s not so easy to do. In the end, it is both sophisticatedscience as well as art. Build your capabilities here.

Not convinced? Think about it from your learners’ perspective. Wouldthey rather say, “I took a bunch of courses,” or “I am certified?” We don’tdiminish the value of training by elevating assessment, but if we don’t assesswell, how will we know if training was worthwhile in the first place?

Learn more

Whatto learn more about this topic? Start out with these books by Judith Hale, Tracey Flynn, Shrock and Coscarelli, and Jack Phillips.