Having an evaluation strategy can help with the overall success of your e-learning strategy. A strong evaluation strategy can determine what reports are used to measure the success of learning courses. A robust learning management system (LMS) should make pulling these data analytics easy. Here, we discuss how you can evaluate your training program by analyzing course completion data, learner performance, and ROI.

The following reports and data will be key considerations throughout an evaluation:

  • Course Completions
    • Percentage of users who have completed a course vs. started a course
    • Percentage complete vs. incomplete
  • Quiz Completion Data
    • Pass/fail rates
    • Failed questions
    • Number of attempts
  • Activity Reports
  • Interaction Data

Being able to dig into these reports can help you determine the effectiveness of your training program.

How can you use data analytics to build stronger e-learning?

Here are a few examples of what different reports can tell you about the effectiveness of your training program.

Completion Data and Engagement

When analyzing completion data, you can determine how long learners spend in a particular course. If learners are completing a course almost immediately after starting or are not finishing the course in the allotted time, it is possible that learner engagement was limited. In some cases, they are clicking through just to get to the next slide. In other cases, they could be frustrated with the course and have decided that it’s not worth their time to continue.

It is important to watch for courses that are still in progress and should be completed, especially if the training window has closed. Too many such courses may be an indication of a content problem that was missed during testing. For example, learners might be getting stuck in a loop when trying to complete an exercise.

In all these scenarios, you can utilize data to improve your course design and delivery. For example, if users are skipping through slides, you can restrict progression through timed slides or until learners prove that they have processed the information via a knowledge check. If courses are incomplete or in progress when they shouldn’t be, it’s an opportunity to fix a content issue or redesign your content with more engaging interactivity.

Learner Performance

Quiz pass/fail rates can determine if learning has actually happened. Some people are great at taking tests, and others fall behind. However, when it comes to e-learning, failure is not an option. If you notice the continued failure of the same questions, ask yourself: “How can I help my learners learn this content better?” Also, consider:

  • Should that section become its own module?
  • Is this section too difficult? If so, how can you work with your instructional designer to change the difficulty?

Going deeper, seeing high pass rates typically means that the learners reviewed the content and understood what was being presented to them. If that’s the case, management can hold them accountable to perform the new learned behaviors.

High pass rates can also indicate learner confidence in the material and ability to perform what was learned.

ROI

For training providers, being able to promote a high return on investment is key to business success.

According to TD.org, “There are two ways to calculate ROI: measure actions or measure opinions. While measuring what people do is better than measuring what they think, this is not practical for most training programs.”

Training providers can use course surveys to garner learner opinions and help measure the effectiveness of a training program. Course surveys often appear at the end of a training course, but they can also appear beforehand to measure the change in learner opinion before and after course completion.

When designing your post-training survey, ask questions that cover three main buckets:

  1. Learning Effectiveness: These questions ask learners about how their knowledge increased due to completing the course. A sample statement could be, “This course greatly increased my knowledge of XYZ,” with the response option being a Likert Scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
  2. Job Impact: These types of questions ask learners about how they can use their learning on the job. A sample statement could be, “After taking this course, I feel confident that I can do XYZ,” with the response option being a Likert Scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.
  3. Business Results: These questions are designed to ask learners directly how the course impacts a business need.

Make sure to promote your ROI to new and current clients. When publishing a LinkedIn Update, you can include your ROI as a part of your marketing push. When asking for testimonials, make sure the ones solicited refer to the ROI.

Conclusion

You can use LMS data to design your courses, market your courses, and help support your overall e-learning strategy. Don’t let data analytics go to waste; use them to your benefit.

Additional Resources

Here at Firmwater, we don’t just sell an LMS for training providers. We partner with our clients, giving them the tools and insights they need to implement the best practices in e-learning course development, growth, and delivery. We care too much about our customers’ businesses to have them wade through forums and chatbots for help.

Ready to use an LMS that’s designed for the way YOU work, with a team dedicated to YOUR needs? Book a no-obligation consultation directly with our team today!