Frequently asked questions about impact assessments
If you are designing and/or delivering a training or creating an educational or learning resource and want to consider the impact of this, ask yourself:
Who is the evaluation for?
This will determine what you ask. For example, if the aim is to understand, and if necessary, enhance, participant experience, level one data about satisfaction might be fine, however, if the commissioning body wants to know about value for money and impact on children you would collect all four levels of impact data.
What do you need to know?
Don’t just ask questions because you can.
Why do you need to know it?
What issue are you aiming to resolve with this learning event?
Will it help you learn what worked well and what could be improved?
Will you change what you do next time as a result of this feedback?
Will the evaluation make a difference?
For example, will it determine whether you commission this learning event again?
Will the evaluation help demonstrate the impact of what you are doing?
What level of impact do you want to demonstrate? For example, you cannot demonstrate improvements in children's mental health if you do not measure this before and after the professional implements their new ways of practicing.
Carefully consider frequency and timings of evaluations
Attendees can become fatigued by too much evaluation. Only ask for as much as you absolutely need. Ask for it close in time to the learning event, e.g., at the start and end of the day. You will get more responses if you ask attendees to complete the form before they leave.
How will the evaluation be shared?
If attendees take the time to feedback, it is good practice, and polite, to let them know what the evaluation showed and how things were changed as a result.