Conclusions from testing knowledge

- At this point, you've delivered an evaluation of participant knowledge. What do they know? You've got some data on this, but now, what do you do with it? Level two evaluations are about whether participants have retained the knowledge you shared. And, more importantly, can demonstrate some aptitude for using it. Now, we aren't testing if they're applying the skills on the job every day. That's the next level. What we evaluated here is if they can apply the skills in a controlled simulation, like a test. So, you've done that. You've assessed participants. What do you take away from the data you collected? What do you actually do with it? First, this is not something you should take to leadership or your manager. They don't want to know employees learned something. They want to know employees can do something and do it over and over correctly. Okay, but what should you do with this information? The first thing is, encourage the participant. We can get lost in data, evaluations, and showing our own progress. Sometimes we forget that we're training people. People need encouragement to keep going. So use the data to boost morale and increase participant confidence. Related to that, the second thing you can do with this data is encourage behavior change. Simply, get them to make it a habit. You see, when they have confidence, it gets them to modify their behavior on the job. They'll want more of that good feeling by performing the task well. But bear in mind, that daily behavior change is something that comes after first mastering the knowledge. Here, we're just setting ourselves up for the next step, not taking that step just yet. That leads me to the third takeaway from a level two training evaluation. It helps you monitor the participants' progress. Yes, participants make progress in the amount of information they understand, but we also want to look at a deeper level of progress. Progressing from positive and first impressions from the training, to having the knowledge, to applying that knowledge, to lasting behavior change, to organizational effects. At this stage, we've assessed that participants are at the having knowledge stage. Remember, just because they retain it and do it well, doesn't mean we've accomplished true behavior change. Lots of people slip back into old habits. It's natural, and it's human. As a trainer evaluating your program, you need to discern between participants who have learned the material and participants who now practice new habits.