Implementing the Four Levels: A Practical Guide for Effective Evaluation of Training Programs

I was happy with my purchase. Unfortunately 2 of the same book was ordered by mistake and when I went to return it, it was not worth my time or money as postage was half the price of the book. Because of this, I will probably not order books as much as I used to as it is too difficult to return if you have made an error. Thanks Rose

This practical guide, a companion to Donald Kirkpatrick's Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels, provides a framework for putting his system into practice. The book assumes a prior knowledge of the four-level system, but demonstrates how to determine which programs to evaluate and at which level to pitch the evaluation, and how to gather the right evidence and present it in a compelling format. The authors provide many examples of every form they discuss in the book and emphasize the importance of following each level in sequence. The style of writing is rather repetitive and could have been better edited, but the advice is sound. We recommend this guide to all those involved in learning and development, such as trainers, training designers and managers.

This book is for people who have to evaluate and justify their training programs. The authors are a father and son team. They have come up with a very interesting structure for evaluating training efforts. The methods begin with the response or smile sheets. While some criticize these instruments, the authors make some great points about why they are important, how to construct them, and offer several good samples you can use in designing your own. The second level measures what they learned from the training. You can use control groups, measure what they knew before and after, focus groups, or the other suggestions they make. They emphasize the third level and it is quite important. It is a longer term measurement of changed behavior in those who took the training. They offer many ways to measure it and are frank about it being hard to do. But it is the connector to the fourth level, which ties the first three steps to results achieved through the training. They are clear that the goal is not to produce proof, but to accumulate evidence including indirect evidence to a level that convinces the readers of the report. I like the fact that they offer samples of all the instruments they recommend including the final level 4 report. Their writing can be a tad repetitive and the phrasing is not terribly polished, but the substance is very worthwhile if you need to evaluate and justify training programs. Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI