Evaluation

The five levels of evaluation are: reactions, learning, transfer, results and return on investment. (The first four levels are by Kirkpatrick and the fifth is by Phillips.)

As the levels increase, the difficulty in evaluating grows. All five levels of evaluation are useful and serve a specific purpose. The fifth level, return on investment, is the most comprehensive in my opinion. This "bottom line" approach will ultimately determine if using the resource was worth it. This is especially true in a business setting. Does the training make a difference in future performance? Hopefully the answer is not "I don't know." In a perfect world we would have resources available to thoroughly evaluate to determine if our approach is successful and learning and improvements are taking place.