Marc My Words: The Future of Learning Assessment

Right now, I bet many of you out there are thinking aboutthe future of learning assessment. No? You should be. As I think about it, I’mdrawn to just one conclusion: There isn’t much of a future unless we change howwe approach it.

When most of us think about learning assessment, we thinkabout tests—end-of-course tests, to be specific. We like to think we’re moresophisticated, but most of the time—whether dictated by tradition, (that’s how we’ve always done it), mandate (that’s what management wants), familiarity (that’s what we believe we know how to do), or tech (it’s what our LMS can support)—it’sthe end-of-course test that dominates our evaluation strategy and practice.

The ever-popular end-of-course test (aka Kirkpatrick “level2”) is important for sure, but it’s too easy for us to buy in to them asadequate predictors of on-the-job performance. Some are so weak that they maynot even measure what was learned in the course, let alone what learners can doafterwards. Worse, we then take these tests and certify compliance, orcompetency, with a host of governmental, industry, and business standards,without knowing for sure whether the learners can actually do what they weretrained to do. They showed up, therefore they learned; and since they learned,they can do. Really?

The problem, in a nutshell

How can we expect learning assessment to mean anything,especially to our clients and customers, if we can’t show that learnersactually improve performance as a result of what they learned? We know better.

Well-designed (and that’s asking a lot) end-of-course testscan assist in predicting performance,but they can’t measure actualperformance. For that you need to get into the field to look at and evaluatework products, measures of efficiency, error rates, customer and employeesatisfaction, business results, supervisory feedback, response times, workagility, and many other data points. Good end-of-course tests, combined withmeasures like these, can go a long way toward certifying performance and,therefore, validating the training received.

If we want the future of learning assessment to remain weak,we can continue to put evaluation and measurement on the back burner ofresources and time; or we can refocus ourselves to bring learning assessment tothe forefront of what we do.

Three important steps you can take

If you want learning assessment to have a stronger future,here are three steps to enhance it in your organization:

1. Takesome money away from your instructional design budget and build yourorganization’s evaluation expertise. You may produce a few less courses, butwhat you do build might have a shot at actually demonstrating real performanceimprovement. This gives learning assessment equal footing with instructionaldesign and technology. It’s not as sexy, but can you really have a great courseif you can’t show that it works?
2. Movecompliance training away from measures of attendance and completion to better measures of actual performance (a hard slog, I know). As I’ve discussed before, we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security byusing poor testing, or just an attendance sheet, to demonstrate competence. Despitegovernment and industry compliance requirements, you still may be on shakyground (legal and otherwise) if you can’t show that your learners can actuallydo what you’ve certified they can do.
3. Putyour clients and customers in charge of evaluation by letting them tell you what constitutes successand then, together, you measure it. This means having the evaluation discussionat the start of the project, notnear the end. Letting your clients and customers own the evaluation outcomesnot only helps to build a shared vision of what the assessments should be—atthe end of the course and in the field—but it also engages them to be moreinvolved in the entire project from the get-go.

Taking steps to elevate the importance of sound learningassessment, and then putting it into practice, won’t be easy. We’re not talkinglip service here. It’s a real investment of time, money, and people. And let’sface it, for most of us, building cool courseware is much more interesting,visible, and rewarding than measuring the results. So there will be resistance.It can be a hard sell. Nevertheless, this is something you must do.