How can you design a training program questionnaire to assess impact?

1 Define your purpose

The first step to design a training program questionnaire is to define your purpose. Why do you want to conduct a questionnaire? What are the main questions you want to answer? What are the specific goals and objectives of your training program? How will you use the results of your questionnaire to improve your training program? Your purpose should be clear, specific, and aligned with your training program. It should also guide your choice of questions, scales, and indicators to measure impact.

2 Know your audience

The second step to design a training program questionnaire is to know your audience. Who are your trainees? What are their characteristics, backgrounds, preferences, and expectations? How familiar are they with the topic of your training program? How motivated are they to participate in your questionnaire? How will you reach them and communicate with them? Your audience should be well-defined, segmented, and understood. It should also influence your language, tone, and style of your questionnaire.

3 Choose your timing

The third step to design a training program questionnaire is to choose your timing. When will you administer your questionnaire? How long will it take to complete? How often will you follow up with your trainees? Your timing should be appropriate, realistic, and consistent. It should also match your purpose and your audience. For example, you might want to conduct a pre-training questionnaire to assess the baseline knowledge and skills of your trainees, a post-training questionnaire to measure the immediate reaction and satisfaction of your trainees, and a delayed questionnaire to evaluate the long-term retention and application of your trainees.

4 Select your format

The fourth step to design a training program questionnaire is to select your format. How will you deliver your questionnaire? Will it be online or offline, paper-based or digital, individual or group-based, self-administered or facilitated? Your format should be convenient, accessible, and reliable. It should also suit your purpose, your audience, and your timing. For example, you might want to use an online questionnaire to reach a large and diverse group of trainees, a paper-based questionnaire to avoid technical issues, or a facilitated questionnaire to ensure clarity and engagement.

5 Craft your questions

The fifth step to design a training program questionnaire is to craft your questions. What types of questions will you use? Will they be open-ended or closed-ended, qualitative or quantitative, factual or attitudinal, direct or indirect? How will you word, order, and group your questions? Your questions should be relevant, valid, and reliable. They should also address your purpose, your audience, and your timing. For example, you might want to use open-ended questions to elicit detailed and nuanced feedback, closed-ended questions to obtain standardized and comparable data, factual questions to test the knowledge and skills of your trainees, or attitudinal questions to measure the perception and satisfaction of your trainees.

6 Plan your analysis

The sixth step to design a training program questionnaire is to plan your analysis. How will you collect, organize, and analyze your data? What tools and methods will you use? How will you interpret and report your findings? How will you ensure the quality and validity of your data? Your analysis should be systematic, rigorous, and transparent. It should also reflect your purpose, your audience, and your timing. For example, you might want to use descriptive statistics to summarize the frequency and distribution of your data, inferential statistics to test the significance and relationship of your data, qualitative methods to explore the themes and patterns of your data, or mixed methods to combine and integrate different types of data.