Insights: Evaluation and follow-up matters

This post completes my commentary to the Learning Insights 2012 Report produced by Kineo for e.learning age magazine. The tenth and final ‘insight’ is that ‘Evaluation and follow-up matters’.
This insight mirrors the findings of Towards Maturity, which places ‘demonstrating value’ as a key element in their model for effective application of learning technologies. To quote from their latest benchmark report, demonstrating value means: ‘Closing the value loop from strategic objective to achievement – and ensuring that stakeholders are kept fully informed along the way.’
Learning professionals have always known that they should be measuring the output of their interventions in terms of business performance, but in easier times (in other words before October 2008) there was very little external pressure on them to do so. As long as there were bums on seats, the happiest of happy sheets and no complaints, then who would want to rock the boat by suggesting that some of this stuff wasn’t actually necessary or useful?
Encouragingly the insights report is telling us that: ‘Budget appears to be available where you can prove value to the business. Successful learning departments are preparing a business case for projects and then evaluating the impact on performance. They are also ensuring learning is followed up with reminders and being transferred to the workplace.’
I have seen recent evidence of some very sophisticated ROI analysis of learning interventions, and this is to be lauded, but it’s usually not necessary to provide evidence with scientific precision. Kirkpatrick himself made the point that, on a routine basis, all that was really needed was a convincing argument in terms of likely causality: ‘The programme went down very well; certainly the assessments we did show that participates moved on a long way in terms of skills and confidence; the evidence from the field is that most of them are putting what they have learned into practice and that this is contributing to better performance in terms of …’.  Whether you subscribe to Kirkpatrick or not – and the management of your organisation couldn’t really care less – the point is that your budget can only be justified on the basis that it adds value to the organisation. It is only reasonable that you should be able to demonstrate this.
The insight also makes a point about follow-up and this is every bit as important. A typical formal intervention – classroom or e-learning – provides valuable input but very rarely sees the job through. If learning interventions are to make a valuable contribution to business performance, they must be seen as an on-going process, not an event. That’s why I am so supportive of blended solutions, because, when well designed, they can cross the boundaries from formal to non-formal to on-demand and experiential learning.
As this is the last of my ten commentaries on the Insights Report, I’d like to thank Steve Rayson and the guys at Kineo for providing this useful stimulus to debate and congratulate them on the sale of their company this week to City & Guilds. Let’s hope they are able to maintain that ‘indie’ culture and edgy approach within the context of a much larger and – historically at least – more conservative organisation.

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