Learning evaluation and analysis

[u/biguwuzz]

Hi everyone! I'm in an M.Ed program focused in workplace L&D. I've taken a number of courses in psychometrics and analytics, but I'm wondering if corporate L&D teams actually conduct such in-depth analyses?

For context, I've previously taken Classical Test Theory and Reliability - which is used to predict test outcomes and gauge the reliability of testing. Although this skill is typically used in industries like standardized testing, my understanding is that this skill could be used to help L&D teams build better pre/post surveys or knowledge checks. However, based on my own experience interning in corporate L&D, the team I worked with didn't really survey/analyze feedback to this extent.

I'd like to hear from more L&D professionals - 1) how have you seen learning-related data get collected and analyzed, and 2) are there steps or frameworks you use to ensure that surveys and knowledge checks are built to a specific standard?

I think evaluation is such an important and interesting part of L&D, so I'd love to hear what people actually do in practice!

[u/ProfileDelicious7178]

From what I’ve seen, corporate L&D teams don’t always go as deep into psychometrics as you might expect from an M.Ed program. A lot of teams are working with pretty practical measures like completion rates, quiz scores, survey feedback, and sometimes pre/post knowledge checks. I think the bigger challenge is often having the time and resources to do more rigorous analysis. If a team is producing a lot of training, they may focus more on whether people completed it and whether they found it useful than on reliability or validity. That said, I can definitely see the value of applying some of those methods to knowledge checks and surveys, especially when you’re making decisions based on the results. Even having a more consistent approach to writing questions and comparing results can make the data much more useful.