Week 1 Discussion The Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation has 4 distinct levels.

Week 1 Discussion

The Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation has 4 distinct levels.  This week, you read about levels 1 and 2, Reaction and Learning.  Of those two levels, which is the most important?  Keep in mind that there is not likely a correct answer.  Choose one that you feel strongly about and make an argument!

-in the course discussions . Responding no less than 2 times in a week.  You should post an original response to the discussion post and reply to at least one of your classmates’ posts. The point of the interaction is to build your knowledge through others’ knowledge and experience.  The posts must be more than an agreement and be much more than the content of a tweet or Facebook post.  If there is not some meaningful content, it will not count towards the post requirements 

Respond to 2 people

Response 1

Hi everyone! I am going to say Level 1: Reaction is the most important of the two choices presented in this week’s discussion.  There are several reasons I am leaning this way and while this is almost an impossible choice, here are a few reasons why I decided to go with Level 1:

One purpose of the Reaction sheets is to informally assess the participants and then adjust accordingly to improve (Kirkpatrick, 2007).  The concept of being able to make changes for improvement is paramount .  Being responsive to the needs of the group is a key piece of being able to meet people where they are and being able to move them forward with attitudes, skills, and knowledge. 

Level 1 really does lay the foundation for the other levels in the model.  By collecting reactions of participants, the reactions act as a guide not just for the content delivery but also for perception data.  Capturing this early perception data in the evaluation process is useful for all the other levels.

Absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) is an idea that relates to an organization’s ability to value, assimilate and apply new knowledge.  Level 1 helps us peek into the value the participants are placing on the content and the training, which can also help us forecast the subsequent learning, behavior, and results.

Finally, the Level 1 work requires us to clearly define what we are measuring.  What a simple idea that can be very complicated for organizations!  Using learning targets to partner with participants is closely linked to increased achievement (Moss & Brookhart, 2009).

This list is in no way meant to diminish the merits of Level 2 (Learning).  However, what tipped the scale for me is the idea that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…  if done well, a solid Level 1 will ultimately get desired results.

Response 2

The Kirkpatrick Model is a tool that is used for evaluating as well as analyzing results from educational and learning programs. This week we read about Kirkpatrick’s level one which is all about reaction as well as level two which is centered around learning. While I believe both levels are very valuable in this model, I lean towards level 2 being more important. Level two is focused on evaluating what trainees have and have not learned. I think this is important because you are able to analyze how each person has developed their skills based on the program. This level provides a deeper look at the confidence level a trainee has around a new skill learned, the level of development they accomplished, and their attitude and knowledge around the program. The learning objectives established in this level help analyze this and determine how much trainees are motivated to make a change.

Although I believe level two can be seen as more important than level one, I do still think level one can be seen as extremely valuable when evaluating the results of a program. It is important for leaders to understand how their team feels and value a program. This level helps determine how valuable a trainee found the education, training, and/or learning program. Level one will help determine and measure people’s reactions. I believe this level is great at laying the groundwork for level two. However, I believe level two is overall more important because it dives deeper into the results of a program.