11 Chapter 10, Evaluating Training Programs

 

Discussion Topics

1.Identify a teacher or a boss from whom you learned a lot. Then identify a teacher or a boss who was the most fun. Were they different individuals? For you, has there been any relationship between how much you’ve learned and how much fun you had? Please give examples.

2.What examples can you give of learning (including training and/or practicing) a skill and improving your performance because of the learning? In these examples, how possible is it that something besides, or in addition to, your training and/or practicing led to your improved performance?

Activity

For a training session, such as training you conduct for the class or a session you simply describe, have students design evaluation forms that would best fit the nature of the “trainees,” the topic and the situation. What criteria did they use to choose this form?

 

Test Questions

1.Training is hard to evaluate. (T)

2.When money is tight, organizations often (a) aim at growth by increasing the training budget, (b) pay more attention to politics than to budgets, (c) focus more on long-term goals, (d) decrease the training budget.

3.Evaluations help trainers learn what works and what doesn’t. (T)

4.Evaluations help trainers show management (a) that training affects

long-term needs, (b) that training affects short-term needs, (c) both a and b, (d) neither a nor b.

5.Trainees’ immediate responses are limited to their opinions. (F)

6.There is a clear relationship between liking and learning. (F)

7.Trainees can judge how well the program material relates to their jobs, their departments, their teams and their organizations. (F)

8.Testing is a problem because (a) trainees don’t like to be tested, (b) trainees may have known the information before the training, (c) tests are time-consuming to score, (d) opinions are hard to measure.

9.Testing is an important part of training if it measures what is learned. (T)

10.Information automatically translates into new behaviors. (F)

11.Objectives that state what the trainee will be able to do are called (a) goals,

(b) objectives, (c) performance objectives, (d) behavioral objectives.

 

12.Some changes in behavior can be measured immediately after the course, while other changes can be measured only after a time interval. (T)

13.To connect training to the bottom line, trainers must use, whenever possible,

(a)cost-related measures, (b) politics, (c) long-term goals, (d) immediate changes in behavior.

14.The pretest-posttest method helps identify whether trainees had the information before the training session. (T)

15.If trainees show more knowledge on the posttest results than on the pretest, this proves that their knowledge came from the course. (F)

16.In the after-only design dealing with a control group, (a) a pretest is given, to compare with posttest results, (b) the control group gets no treatment, (c) there are many differences between the treatment group and the control group, (d) none of the above.

17.In the after-only design dealing with a control group, test results indicate whether changes are due to the training. (T)

18.Pretest-posttest design with a control group uses statistical analysis to ensure that both groups are, statistically, equal. (T)

19.Pretest-posttest design with a control group shows whether posttest results are due to training or to random chance. (T)

20.The time-series design uses more than one pretest and more than one posttest. (T)

21.A weakness of the time-series design is that (a) too much turnover may occur during the time involved, (b) control groups cannot be used, (c) periodic testing is unreliable, (d) circumstances other than the training could cause the changes.

22.The Solomon Four-Group involves (a) four groups taking both the pretest

and posttest, but only two groups getting training, (b) two groups taking

the pretest, all four groups taking the posttest, and two groups getting

training, one with the pretest and one without it, (c) two groups taking the

pretest, all four groups taking the posttest, and the two groups that took the

pretest getting the training, (d) four groups taking both the pretest and

posttest, all four groups getting the training.

23. In the Solomon Four-Group, multiple baselines are the individuals’ current

levels of performance. (F)

24. The Solomon Four-Group method is practical for research in

organizations. (F)

25. Because of the need to “prove” the worth of training in terms of the

bottom line, trainers must consider the evaluation aspect even while

designing programs. (T)

26. The evaluation process is of little use in either its implications about

training programs or politics. (F)

27. Even though the trainer may use statistical methods to strengthen his or

her position, the bottom line must be practical and usable. (T)

 

Essay

• Assuming that training departments usually are politically weal<, what relationships do you see between this politically weak position and the use

of evaluation procedures in training? In what ways might statistical

procedures have negative, instead of positive, effects on the training

department? On the organization?

• If you were a trainer today, using what you know about the kinds of

changes (and rates of change) organizations and employees face, what

would you do to improve the political position of the training department?

Please give specific examples and reasons.