Importance of Learning Objectives

Recently I finished reading the second edition (published 1998) of Donald L. Kirkpatrick's book Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels. Although I was familiar with Kirkpatrick's work on evaluation, it was nonetheless interesting to read about it "first-hand" and follow the interesting case studies that illustrated the use of his concepts and principles in the business world.

To recap "in a nutshell" the four levels are: (1) Reaction (to course, instructor, relevancy to job usually measured by a questionnaire immediately after training), (2) Learning (occurs when attitudes are changed, knowledge in increased, or skill is improved and is usually measured by a test at course completion), (3) Behaviour (that changes as a result of training and is usually measured by a survey or interview of sudents and/or their managers some time after the training), and (4) Results (that occurred because of training - i.e. the business impact  - and is usually done as a financial or performance measurement some time after the training).

What really became apparent to me in reading this book is the paramount importance of developing meaningful learning objectives for your training. Without them, none of the four levels are even possible. If you have well-defined learning objectives, then Level 1 and Level 2 evaluation becomes feasible. If you are diligent about analyzing the Level 1 and Level 2 evaluation results with the goal of continuous improvement of the training program, then you can not help but positively influence the outcomes of the Level 3 and 4 evaluations.