On the community forums where I often post comments I spend a significant proportion of the time answering or offering thoughts on learning and development evaluation. This then leads to me receiving other personal emails regarding the subject. One of the key areas that appears to be problematic for a number of people relates to questionnaire writing.
I have formed this opinion both from the questions I have been asked and from seeing some of the questionnaires that people have asked me to complete or critique. I think this is because people often think (something like) “They are only questions – I ask questions all the time”. They can therefore assume it is straightforward and so don’t put sufficient thought and time into the process. Exactly what information are you looking for? What type or style of questions are most likely to elicit the information. How should they be worded?
It is a critical area. It can have a huge impact on the quality and quantity of the primary data you generate. Many years ago I was lucky to have had the opportunity to write and deliver an 11-week course on Training Evaluation. As you might gather from the duration of the course, it was very detailed! We spent a day of the Programme looking at how to write a covering letter to a questionnaire, and another 3 days on the actual formulation and writing of the questionnaire itself.
Are you thinking of writing a questionnaire? If so, the following 10 principles will assist you to maximise the quality of data and quantity of questionnaires returned to you.
1 Avoid general or vague questions
2 Avoid hypothetical questions
3 Avoid leading questions
4 Avoid double-barrelled questions
5 Avoid jargon
6 Avoid potentially embarrassing questions
7 Keep your questions short
8 Consider your terminology
9 Open ended or prompted questions?
10 Apply all the principles appropriately
If you go to the Discussions area of my Company Facebook Page you will find a document with more detail on each of these principles, together with examples of each. Or you can email me if you would like a version in MS Word.
On my next post I will look at two different models of evaluation.
Paul
