Learner Surveys: Focus on Performance, DEI & Leadership Development

We learning professionals are frustrated with our learning evaluation work. In 2007, Guild research found that only 20% of us were able to do the learning measurement we wanted to do. This year, TiER1’s Learning Trends 2023 survey found that 65% of learning teams wish they could make improvements in their learning evaluations. Most organizations rely on poorly constructed learner surveys to gather learning data. A few years ago, Work-Learning Research asked learning professionals about their learner surveys. Only 15% said they thought they were very useful. Scientific research shows that traditional smile sheets are virtually uncorrelated with learning results.

As learning professionals, we know we should improve our learning-evaluation methods. In this session, we will take a deep dive into the performance-focused learner survey approach, and explore new questions focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging.

You’ll learn about new questions that can be used for leadership-development programs, enabling us to get feedback from leaders’ and managers’ direct reports—and reveal new approaches to gauge DEIA in all our courses—not just DEIA courses. You’ll learn about a review of scientific research on leadership and how to craft questions that enable us to gather insights from direct reports. We will engage in discussions to enable your reflection.

In this session you will learn how to:

• Design performance-focused distinctive questions to survey learners
• Use learner-survey questions to gauge DEIA considerations in all your courses
• Survey direct reports to help you evaluate your leadership-development programs