The following list of recommendations can help you implement an evaluation process that will measure the right things and help avoid misinterpreting feedback:
Do evaluate each workshop session. Make sure every workshop session has a final evaluation. For longer workshops, create a short interim feedback form so you have an ongoing gauge of student reaction and satisfaction.
Do use quantification measures wherever possible. Allow participants to express the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with each workshop element.
Do get responses from all participants. Short of locking workshop attendees in the room and not letting them out until they provide feedback, this can be a tougher job than it might first seem. Provide plenty of reminders about the need to complete the evaluations. Consider having an additional incentive such as a completion certificate or even a trinket or other souvenir of the event to offer in exchange for completed evaluations. Make sure you have identified any attendees who need to leave before the end of the workshop and arrange to gather feedback from them too as appropriate.
Do measure the things that matter. Look first to the stated objectives for the course. After that, move on to more subjective elements within the workshop.
Do request participants to provide explanations, comments, and recommendations. Remember: The purpose of evaluation is to improve your training effort based on the results of the evaluation. Merely finding out that a participant “disagreed” about meeting an objective is not as useful as finding out why that person had a negative reaction.
Don’t rush participants. Handing out the evaluation forms in the last five minutes of a workshop will almost always guarantee careless or partial feedback. Even worse for you, rushing your attendees may generate hostility that may show up in their responses.
Don’t ignore negative feedback. You shouldn’t be surprised if from time to time you have one or two participants who do not favorably evaluate your workshop. Read their comments carefully and see if you can find some truth in their negative comments. A pattern of negative feedback in more than a couple of evaluations is a sign that there are some elements of the workshop (or of your delivery) that need attention.
Don’t just look at evaluations for a single workshop. Each workshop is unique, with its own set of participants. You’ll want to look at each event’s evaluations to measure its success. Don’t stop there, however. Build a database of evaluation data so you can track patterns of feedback over time. If you are running a series of offerings of the same workshop, keep the assessment data, along with details of time, location, or audience base, so you can “slice and dice” evaluation responses to spot trends and other patterns.
Don’t overreact. It’s easy to let a particularly good or bad set of evaluations skew your perception of how things are going. Study each workshop’s feedback carefully and dispassionately before jumping to conclusions. Continue to ask “Why might that be so?” when you see a strongly stated comment—whether it is one of approval or of disapproval.
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