Q: Right now, I’m refining the participant evaluation process.  I’d love to see what other community education/enrichment programs are doing for participant evaluation.  Do you have examples that you could share or colleges that you recommend I contact?

A: Here are some of LERN's recommendations on evaluations. I have also attached some sample documents for you to look at.

One evaluation format for a course is to ask a single question asking the student to rate the course on a scale of 1 to 5.   This gives you basic data for your program and data for you to evaluate your teachers. For additional questions, determine what is most important to find out from the questions – how you want the information to help you improve your program.  If you are seeking marketing information on courses, here are some things to think about:

• Ask only questions that you can act upon. Don't ask questions whose answers give you information about which you can do nothing. For example, asking whether childcare is a problem in attending classes is something you should ask only if you plan to address the issue of childcare.
• Be specific. Ask questions that will give you information you can use to make adjustments or changes, for example, "What is the most convenient time for you to attend a class?"  "What is the best day of the week for you to attend a class?" etc.
• Give options (multiple choice or Likert scale, for example) for the answers, rather than asking open-ended questions.
• Give respondents the opportunity to make suggestions for ways to improve your program and for additional classes by offering an “Additional Comments” option at the end.

Here is a very simple example for a course evaluation:

The instructor was knowledgeable and capable. 1 2 3   4 5

The class was accurately represented in the brochure.   1 2 3   4 5

I would recommend this course to a friend  1 2 3 4 5

How could we improve this course?

If you decide to ask open-ended questions, use a simple approach –

        What did you like best about this course?

        What could be improved about this course?

This will give you a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of a course.

For an instructor evaluation, the best types of things to ask include (these can be Yes/No or Likert scale questions, and should be limited to 5 maximum):

        Was the instructor prepared and knowledgeable?

        Did the course begin and end on time?

        Was the instructor clear about the goals of the course?

        Did the instructor keep your interest throughout the course?

        Were the materials provided by the instructor helpful?

        Do you feel that the instructor met your expectations for the course goals?

These types of questions will help you determine if an instructor is satisfying the needs of the students.  Again, provide an option for “comments” so that you can find out what students are thinking.

Questions that address things like classroom environment/facilities, equipment, your registration process should be addressed in different surveys separate from these.  Think about exactly what it is you want to do with the information from the survey, and determine which questions will help you get the direction you need in order to take action.

If you develop a survey, I would be happy to review it and provide comments.  Thank you for contacting LERN – we are happy to help!