Further training costs your company money and time. Therefore, in educational controlling, not only is the objective crucial for success, but also the measurement of these objectives. Find out how you can assess training not only measurable, but also achieve demonstrably better results.

Why a “Are you satisfied?” is not a good assessment

The classic survey at the end of a training still often asks “Are you satisfied with the training?”. This question is perfectly fine – it just doesn't provide any insight into the effectiveness of the training. Whether the participants implement what they have learned in the long term – that can only be measured months after the training.

With every training measure, there should first be a question: What is the goal? That goals are important is now a common understanding: Educational controlling naturally includes the determination of educational needs and the setting of goals.

However, the evaluation of these goals at the end of a training is often neglected: No time, no interest, not thought of it – or fear of real results. After all, the training is over, all organizational tasks are completed, and attention may already be on the next training.

The trainer Zach Davis (Peoplebuilding) knows how quickly educational measures can become confusing:

It is important not to forget the bird's-eye view, for instance, regarding questions like 'What does the measure bring and 'What resources does it cost on the way there'.

What does educational controlling look like in your company? Perhaps you know the challenge of measurable results from personal experience. It is important here, on the one hand, to hand over didactic tasks to experts and on the other hand still to stay involved.

Measurable results through transparency for all stakeholders Often, personnel developers and other decision-makers are only very limitedly involved in the training. The contact with the trainer is established, but what exactly the trainer does with the participants in the course and how the employees participate, personnel managers often cannot answer. This is precisely what makes success measurement in traditional educational controlling complicated to impossible.

But what if the training does not take place in a classic day seminar format? What if the framework is chosen so that other interested parties, such as personnel developers or managers of the participants, can also participate in the training?

This is exactly what is achieved with the concept of Blended Learning: In addition to classic seminars, coaching, or other live formats, participants are supported online. This mix of offline and online is called Blended Learning because at least two fundamentally different formats are mixed (to blend = to mix).

The mix makes it: Live event and online support

The presence events in Blended Learning are important to lay the groundwork for the success of the training:

• establish a personal bond between participant and trainer

• possibly introduce participants to each other

• motivate participants to take part in the training

• convey the process and objectives of the training

All of this works better in personal meetings or at least in phone calls or live webinars than in an online course. On the other hand, E-learning methods have other advantages, for example:

• long-term trainings instead of one-day seminars

• real transfer into everyday work through daily online impulses

• little loss of working time due to high flexibility

… and finally measurable results that can be compared with the objectives! With Blended Learning, you can succeed in a new form of educational controlling – so to speak, educational controlling 4.0.

What does this 4.0 mean?
In various contexts, the term “4.0” is mentioned when it relates to new developments initiated by digitalization. For example, Industry 4.0, Work 4.0 or also Trainer 4.0 and Personnel Development 4.0.

Four methods with Blended Learning that enable measurability

Digital training units have the clear advantage that it can be very easily documented who has done which exercises or watched which video. Quiz questions, surveys, and exams can also provide clear results at appropriate points in the online course. This way, you as a personnel developer know at any time during the training how the measure is progressing – and the trainer or a manager can intervene to motivate the participant further or offer support.

Below, I will introduce you to four typical methods with which educational controlling 4.0 can be achieved: In the online part of a Blended Learning, you can transparently measure how far the participants are from the current state of the objectives.

1. Insights: Who is how far in the training?

A training can only work if the participant is willing to contribute to its success: He should regularly engage with the online units, complete exercises, and generally be interested in successfully finishing the training. In the online course, previously determined individuals (as Admin) can see which users have already completed which units.

Example with the blink.it platform:

As an Admin in a blink.it course, you can see with just a few clicks which participants have already completed which learning units (“Blinks”). Completed Blinks are marked in green, blue are uncompleted, and gray are not yet released – because, for example, a Blink before must be completed first.

2. Quiz: What does the interim status of the participants look like?

Quiz questions are entertaining and challenge the participant in a playful way. In the online course, quiz questions can be wonderfully employed to ask about the interim status of the participants. In the evaluation, you then see the answers of individual participants and simultaneously gain an impression of which questions may have posed difficulties for multiple participants.

This makes quiz questions doubly useful: As a personnel manager or leader, you gain insights into the current level of knowledge, and as a trainer, you can subsequently target unclear content for review or deepening.

Example with the blink.it platform:

With the blink.it platform, a quiz can be set up so that a certain score is required to pass the course. If it is not a final exam (see point 4), the quiz can also be passed with zero points.

3. Survey: How do participants assess their progress?

I already referred above to the classic “Are you satisfied?” survey: With an online course, such a survey can be created in a flash – and even faster evaluated.

A survey can already be useful during the training. Long-term behavioral changes can generally only be achieved with long-term training, for which Blended Learning is excellently suited. For example, if you find after a month that more and more participants are no longer regularly active in the online course (see point 1), a survey can help to find out the reason for this – and based on that to develop measures to motivate the participants more.

Also at the beginning of a training, a survey is useful, preferably even before the first presence date. In consultation with the trainer, personnel developers and managers can ask in advance what is important to the participants and what they expect from the training.

Example with the blink.it platform:

As an Admin on the blink.it platform, you can look at the results of a survey: If correct and incorrect answers have been predetermined, you can see here whether the participant answered the question correctly.

4. Certificate: Who passes the final exam?

Not every training requires a final exam. However, it can be a good means to motivate participants to successfully complete the training. Additionally, all who are logged in as Admin in the course see which participants passed.

A certificate may even motivate participants twice as much: Not only during the course as a type of incentive but also at the end as a reminder to continue applying what they've learned.

Note: A final exam should be passable by all who actively participated in the course. Ideally, you implement measures for measuring learning success during the Blended Learning beforehand to avoid facing an unexpectedly high failure rate at the end.

Example with the blink.it platform:

As a participant in a blink.it course, you will see that you have passed the course and can download your course certificate. As Admin, you see the results of all participants and can mark participants as “passed” or “failed” if you wish to make any changes afterward.

Now it's your turn! How well is success measurement of your training measures functioning? Perhaps educational controlling 4.0 with Blended Learning could also be a method for your company to actually achieve once established goals.

The methods mentioned above are formal ways to measure learning progress. Now also check out didactic methods of Blended Learning: How you can prepare participants for training with surveys or how to stimulate a virtual discussion. You can find a total of 40 methods in our card game for Blended Learning, the rocket pack. Let yourself be inspired!