How to Monitor and Evaluate Learning Program Success [Step 5]

Now that your learning program is live, it's time to monitor the success and progress toward the program goals. Here's how to get started.

So, what's next?

We've covered the first four steps of our learning method:

  1. Align Goals
  2. Define Metrics
  3. Discover What's Working
  4. Design a Learning Program

Now, it's time to monitor your program so you can quickly identify and correct any problems. As discussed in Step 4, your learning program design should include dashboards to help you monitor metrics related to your program.

Check these dashboards regularly to make sure issues don't appear within your program. And, if an issue does arise, address it quickly.

Don't wait until the end.

Let’s say you’re rolling out training to 5,000 learners to improve their job performances in a particular area. You’ve included pre- and post-assessments of the training and are using a dashboard to monitor the change in scores before and after training.

After the first few days, 750 learners have completed the training as a pilot group, but the dashboard isn't showing statistically significant change in assessment results.

This data allows you to act quickly and postpone the main block of training while you investigate why training isn't working (or why the assessment is bad).

You can then make improvements and re-run the pilot before you waste the time of 4,250 other learners. In other words, don’t wait until the end of the program to evaluate and make improvements.

Step 5 Objectives

  • Identify any problems early on.
  • Quickly implement fixes for the problems.

Making It Happen

  • Use your dashboard to spot problems quickly.
  • Launch the program with a small pilot group.
  • Make changes to the program in response to data.
  • Keep stakeholders updated.

Up Next: Learning Evaluation Step 6, Analyze

Our next blog post discusses Step 6. You'll find out how to analyze learning data in detail at key points in your program. And be sure to sign up for Watershed Insights to have the latest updates sent straight to your inbox.

[Editor's Note: This blog post was originally posted on February 23, 2016, and has been updated for comprehensiveness.]

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Keep your program on track.

Need a reminder to check your learning evaluation metrics? Download this worksheet to record actions and track the success of your program.

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