How to measure real learning impact

• 4 min read

Perhaps one of the most frustrating parts of working in learning and development is spending so much time creating what you think are great learning programs, and then not being able to properly track their effectiveness.

Whether it’s because of time restraints or a lack of useful measurement tools, the way that this process is traditionally set up can leave you in the dark, with nothing but smile sheets to guide your path.

Measuring the value of your L&D programs, while proving its effectiveness and impact, isn’t always cut and dry. Regardless of our product or any other technology, there is a clear problem in the industry.

So, what are the most common problems associated with measuring learning impact?

  • It’s time consuming and manual.
  • It doesn’t scale.
  • Getting the right answers is complex.
  • Low response rates.
  • No reference or benchmarks.

Let’s take a look at the current solutions in the market and how we’re challenging those well known issues.

How are these problems solved today?

Built-In survey capabilities (blank templates or questions):

While most learning platforms offer built-in reporting capabilities and blank templates for surveys, this solution is flawed.

The configurable dashboards within Learning Platforms come with the assumption that you not only have hours to create and monitor reports, but that you can also easily evaluate the data presented to you and turn it into actionable next steps. It also assumes that you don’t have deadlines to make all of this happen – it’s just not realistic.

On top of this, data coming from surveys is almost always superficial and generally not useful for determining any conclusion or insight.

Special surveying tools (such as SurveyMonkey):

In theory, things can go better with Surveymonkey, a sophisticated surveying platform.

Once again, however, you would have to spend a long time tweaking each of your surveys to make them applicable for each course, and still not have any way of knowing how your learning programs compare to industry standards.

A more effective way to gauge learning effectiveness 

You shouldn’t have to settle with these less-than-optimal solutions. And now you don’t have to.

Docebo has joined with forMetris to provide a seamless insight into your learning activities. Now referred to as Docebo Learning Impact, this solution takes ready-to-use surveys and reports and applies them to formal e-learning courses within Docebo.

All surveys included in the platform are based upon industry benchmarks to measure effectiveness and increase learner engagement – so you don’t have to worry about collecting this valuable information yourself!

To track satisfaction and information retention, your learners will receive a survey directly after the training is completed and three months later, to understand if the learning has been applied in the flow-of-work.

This all-encompassing tool is supported by data from more than 5 million surveys, providing the reference you need to determine whether a learning program was effective or ineffective, and to what extent.

With such a large data pool to pull from, Docebo Learning Impact is able to quickly reach the right conclusions and pull learning trends that you can’t see from your data alone.

The anonymous survey results are then turned into an easy-to-read report, accessible directly in the Docebo learning platform, to enable L&D leaders to improve the design, content, and delivery of their formal courses in a manner that is less subjective.

Let’s compare

All kirkpatrick levels covered

The Kirkpatrick Model is a great tool for measuring learning impact and, below, we’ve outlined what you should aim to uncover at each stage:

As you can see, Learning Impact covers all four levels of the Kirkpatrick Model, with levels 1-3 covered largely at scale. Level 2 is covered with the evaluation of course objectives in terms of knowledge and skill acquisition, and level 3 is covered through the personalized action plan defined in the initial survey, which is then re-evaluated in the follow-up survey. Level 4 can be covered with Learning Impact’s service to customize surveys upon request.

What Learning Impact means for your business

Thoroughly evaluate your learning programs:

A sophisticated, automated surveying capability makes assessing learning programs both thorough and fast. Results are compared against rich industry benchmarks for an objective, balanced assessment. Clean reports and dashboards let any stakeholders immediately understand areas of improvement.

Improve response rates for surveys:

Optimized survey techniques (A/B testing, reminders, cross-browser and cross-device fidelity, specific UI design) and personalized reports for learners at the end of each questionnaire engage and incentivize learners to respond more frequently than other survey engines.

Survey programs with 20% response rates struggle to bring in any meaningful data, making the survey a useless exercise or, worse, a source of misleading information. Learning Impact surveys take all of the research and development off your shoulders.

Create actionable next steps based on substantiated, qualitative responses:

The ready-to-go, confidential surveys are designed and optimized to produce high learner engagement, with average response rates ranging from 70-80% for the initial survey and 60-70% for the follow up survey.

Turn the qualitative data driven from higher response rates into effective training programs that build off of the parts that are working and scrap the areas where the program isn’t working for learners.

The only way is forward!

Contact us to learn more about how you can prove learning impact and gain a clear picture on the effectiveness of your learning programs.