"Fill this in before you go"
Sometimes referred to as "happy sheets", Course Assessment surveys are probably among the most often abused surveys. Completed immediately after a training session which at worst has been a break from the daily routine, and at best a life changing experience full of insights and inspiration, informants often are asked to hand them back personally to the individual who has guided, supported and nurtured them through the learning experience. So it isn't surprising that the responses to the Course Assessment Surveys are usually positive in tone, with perhaps a critical word about the quiche at lunchtime on the Tuesday.
Behaviour
To develop a Course Assessment surveys questionnaire to measure the effectiveness of a training course, you need to consider its objectives. When you are concerned with skills, training is about changing people's behaviour. After the course, the trainee might well be able to recite the dogma on how a given situation should be handled, but if when that situation arises he reacts as he always would have done, and not as the course suggested, then the training has been ineffective. No transfer of learning has taken place.
We work with clients to achieve the best measure of the real effect of training, and that often means conducting the Course Assessment surveys some time after the courses, when participants have had the time to practise, and they and others can report on any change of behaviour which might have taken place.
