Post-Training Survey Questions: Examples and Types | Kodo Poll (2023)

after traininginvestigathey are an indispensable part of running a successful training course. Attendee feedback can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your training, make improvements, and plan future courses. Post-training surveys are the best way to improve your training and ensure it meets your goals and is value for money.

But post-training surveys are only as good as the questions they contain. In this post, we'll show you how to write effective post-training survey questions and show you examples and types that you can get inspired by.

Why use post-training survey questions?

Regardless of the type of training you offer, all courses have the same basic objective; to help students develop new skills and implement them as quickly as possible. Without a post-training survey, it can be hard to know if what you're providing is effective and if participants feel like they're gaining the skills they need.

How to get the most out of post-workout surveys

Post-training surveys are especially effective when you use them as part of a model to assess training effectiveness. One of the best known models is themodel kirkpatrick.

This popular training assessment template has four levels of learning assessment:

• Level 1: Reaction
  This measures the degree to which participants found the training relevant and engaging.
• Level 2: Learning
  This step measures whether participants gained new knowledge, skills, or other attributes from the training.
• Level 3: Behavior
  The third level looks at the degree to which course participants applied what they learned when they returned to the workplace.
• Level 4: Results
  This final stage looks at whether the training achieved the desired results.

Post-training surveys can help you achieve Kirkpatrick's Level 1 Response assessment objective by measuring the participant's reaction to the training received. In this way, surveys can help you gauge the overall effectiveness of any training you offer.

Post-Training Survey Question Types Explained

There are two types of survey questions: objective and subjective. Knowing the difference between these two types of questions is the first step in writing your own effective post-training survey questions.

Objective questions are factual in nature and their answers can, in theory, be independently verified. An example of an objective question would be:

“During the last year, approximately how many training sessions have you attended?”

The answer does not have to be precise; You can offer a variety of approximate answers, such as 0, 1-2, 3, or more. However, the answers must be factually accurate.

The other type of question is subjective questions. The answers to these types of questions will be based on what the respondent thinks or feels. A good example of subjective questions would be Kirkpatrick's Level 1 post-training survey.

“Did the training meet your expectations?”

Even if you posed this as a single or multiple choice question with a variety of answers (for example, below expectations, met expectations, exceeded expectations), the respondent's answers could not be verified with facts. It is their opinion, based on what they think, feel or believe.

Explanation of Response Types to Post-Training Survey Questions

There are several possible ways to get respondents to answer the questions. These are:

• Single choice and multiple choice questions
• Likert scale questions
• classification questions
• closed questions
• Open questions

Here are some examples of each of these types of questions that you might encounter in a post-training survey.

Examples of single choice and multiple choice questions

Here at KodoSurvey, we define single-choice questions as those that ask the respondent to choose one answer from multiple alternatives. For example, a post-training survey for a GROW coaching course might be:

“What characteristic should employee goals NOT have?”

to. trying
B. Specific
C. Achievable
D. realistic
And I dont know

We define this question as single choice because the respondent is asked to choose one answer. If you notice, Kodo Survey includes an "I don't know" option by default on all single and multiple choice questions to discourage respondents from guessing the correct answer.

On the other hand, a multiple choice question would ask respondents to select a series of answers. For example:

“Employees should be guided to choose goals that have which of the following characteristics?”

Specific
B. Achievable
C trying
D. realistic
And I dont know

To answer correctly, respondents would have to select A, B, and D, making it a multiple choice question. Single and multiple choice questions are a common format for many post-training surveys because they limit the number of possible responses and this makes the survey data easier to analyze and work with.

Sample Post-Training Likert Scale Questions

Likert scale questions are a popular alternative to single and multiple choice questions. This format asks respondents to assign a number (usually 5) to each question.

Examples:

Assign a number between one and five to answer the following questions, with one being the lowest score and five being the highest.

• How engaging was the instructor?
• What was the relevance of the training?
• How useful was the content of the training?
• What was the quality of the training site?
• What was the quality of the course materials?

Sample Post-Training Qualification Questions

Rating questions are similar to Likert scale questions, except that the format uses smiley faces, stars, or other graphics. If you've ever received a 'smile sheet' after a training session, you'll be familiar with qualifying questions.

Examples:

Assign a smiley face to answer each of the following questions. One head is the lowest score and five heads is the highest.

• Assess the relevance of the training.
• Assess the quality of course materials.
• Evaluate the usefulness of the course.
• How effective was the instructor in this course?
• How useful was the multimedia (photos, videos, etc.) in the course?

Examples of closed questions post-training

Closed questions include yes/no questions and any question with a defined correct answer. They help you obtain specific data about the participants or certain areas of the course. They work well if you want to know details about the course and the graduates.

Examples:

• It was the first time that I participated in this training (Yes/No)
• Was the font size easy to read? (But)
• Did you finish the course? (But)
• How old are you?
  (Answer options: 18-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, 56 or more)
• How many years of professional experience do you have?
  (Response options: 1-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years, 16 years or older)

Examples of Post-Training Open Questions

Open questions are an important part of any post-training survey. They allow you to get valuable feedback from the participants and understand if the training was successful.

Examples:

• Did the course meet your expectations? Because? Why not?
• What additional learning modules would you like to see included in the course?
• Do you intend to continue training in this field? Because? Why not?
• How do you think the course could have been improved?
• What parts of the course were missing? Please provide details.

Tips for writing your own post-training survey questions

Now that we've reviewed the post-training survey question types and response range, you're ready to start writing your own. The problem is that it can be difficult to know which questions to include and how to ask them.

We recommend following these three simple rules:

1. Be concise.
Formulate your questions as simply as possible, using the fewest words. This reduces the chance that respondents will interpret the questions differently.

2. Write in an easy, conversational tone.
Imagine that you are talking to a colleague or co-worker; How would you formulate the questions?

3. Test your search
Once you've written your questions, test them with friends or colleagues to make sure they're easy to understand. This helps you identify and resolve any problem areas.

Sample Post-Training Survey Questions

Here are some sample post-training survey questions you may want to include. Obviously, you won't need all of them, so choose only those that are relevant to your course.

Expectations

These sample post-training survey questions will help you identify whether the training met learner expectations.

“Did you have clear expectations for the course?”
(Closed question: Yes/No)

“If yes, what were your expectations regarding the course?”
(Open-ended response: Please provide space for a written response)

“Did the course meet your expectations?”
(Single option: No, To some extent, Yes, I don't know)

“How would you rate the pace of learning in the course?”
(Single option: slow, medium, fast, don't know)

“Did the training cover the content you expected?”
(Single option: No, To some extent, A lot, I don't know)

Knowledge

Most training instructors conduct pre- and post-training assessments to measure whether learning has occurred in the course. This is especially true for companies that follow Kirkpatrick's training assessment model, as Level 2, Learning, explicitly examines this area.

As we mentioned earlier, Kodo Survey includes the "I don't know" alternative by default for all single and multiple choice questions. This encourages respondents to select that option instead of guessing the answer to the question. Therefore, it is important to choose alternative answers that appear equally correct to the "untrained eye".

We suggest two ways to do this. First, you can make the alternative answers contain approximately the same number of characters or words as the correct answer. Second, make the content seem equally plausible to avoid a situation where the answer is obvious.

A misspelled question would be:

“What does the 'R' in the acronym stand for?GROWsupport?"

A row
B rap
c. realistic
red d
And I dont know

A better question would be:

"What does the 'R' stand for in GROW?"

A. Realistic
b. reality
c real time
D. Rational
And I dont know

In this question, options A-D seem equally correct to someone who hasn't done the training.

Course experiences

You can include questions about the work experiences of the participants during the training. This will help you get a sense of how the participants felt and if they felt it was collaborative and interactive. The 5 questions on the Likert scale are a good way to get feedback on experiences. For example:

“Rate your overall experience in the course”
(Likert scale 5)

“Please rate the collaborative work opportunities in the course”
(Likert scale 5)

Training course content

One of the most important areas of post-training survey feedback is asking participants what they thought of the training.course content. This gives you ideas on how you can improve the content for future training sessions.

“Overall, did the course content meet your expectations?”
(Rating question, 5 stars)

“Why did the course content meet or not meet your expectations?”
(Open question)

“Assess the quality of course content”
(Ranking question, out of 5)

“Did you find the content easy to understand?”
(Likert scale 5)

“Was there any content you expected but was missing? If so, please explain."
(Open question)

Presentation and structure of the course.

Some courses are built with strong training materials, but have a confusing structure or poor presentation. These questions can help you determine if delivery and structure were a problem for your training.

"How interesting was the course instructor?"
(Rating question, 5 stars)

“Did the course delivery meet your expectations?”
(Evaluation question)

“Was the content clearly presented?”
(Closed question, yes/no)

“Did the course have a clear structure?”
(Closed question, yes/no)

“Did you find any aspect of the course unclear or confusing? Please elaborate."
(Open question)

Learning Management System (LMS) experience

If you are using a Learning Management System (LMS) to facilitate the question, it is worth asking participants for feedback on this aspect of the training. A messy, poorly designed, or faulty LMS can ruin a strong training course.

“How would you rate your experience with multimedia in the course?”
(Likert scale 5)

"How useful did you find multimedia in this course?"
(Likert scale 5)

“Did you have any technical problems? It is so, please explain.
(Open-ended question, leave space for an answer)

"Evaluate the quality of multimedia (audio, video and animation)"
(Evaluation question)

“How can the multimedia used in this course be improved? Please explain. (Likert scale 5)
(Open-ended question, leave space for an answer)

For you

We hope our guide to writing effective post-training survey questions will help you write some of them. In general, the most important piece of advice is to continually test your questions with friends, colleagues, and co-workers to make sure everyone interprets them in the same way. This will provide you with high-quality data that you can use to improve your training.

For more information, download our whitepaper,Determine and optimize the impact of your training and development, or schedule a meeting with one of our experts.

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