The best training survey questions to start asking

If you’re a training provider, you’ll know that you’re in a highly competitive industry where students can pick and choose which course best meets their needs.

In order to stand out, you need to design and deliver your training course effectively, seek and be responsive to feedback and be willing to make those changes that can deliver significant results.

Creating a training survey is one of the best ways you can achieve these objectives. By speaking to your students before and after the course, you can get clear on their expectations, highlight your course’s strengths and weaknesses and optimise your offerings.

In this article, we’ll explain why training evaluation questions are important and suggest some useful questions you should consider asking your students.

Why ask training evaluation questions?

As a course provider, you want to ensure that any training you’re providing is high-quality, effective, contains the right learning materials and provides learners with an optimal educational environment.

To do this, you’ll need to conduct training surveys to obtain this vital feedback at every stage of the course: before training starts and after the course is completed.

You can find out what the learner believes about your training methods, tools and resources, course structure, course content, assessment methods, delivery, instructor effectiveness and discover how satisfied they are with the course overall.

With this information, you can refine your training course and make it even more effective for the learner.

Pre-course surveys

Pre-course surveys help training providers to find out more about their students, anticipate potential future challenges and understand their expectations when joining the course. This information will allow you to offer a service that people need, saving effort time and money in the process. Here are some of the questions you might like to include in your pre-course survey.

1. What are you looking to get from this course?

You’ll better understand your learner’s goals and be able to tailor your content more effectively by asking this question. The question can also explain what level of expertise or education the student has before starting the course and enable you to assess their progress more effectively.

2. What made you choose this course?

Again, this question also helps you understand what the learner’s goals might be and what they seek to gain. However, it can also help to identify where your online marketing efforts are working and whether you need to make improvements.

3. How do you learn most effectively?

Each of us has a preferred learning style that can allow us to absorb new information more quickly, learn and use it in the real world. What do your students prefer?

4. What prior knowledge do you have about the subject?

Have your students studied this topic before? Have they had any real-life experience? Asking this question will open up lines of communication and help you to understand your unique learners better.

Post-course surveys

After the course is over, start to gather feedback from your students. Ideally, this should be done within 24 hours to ensure the information is fresh in their minds and they can provide an accurate account of the course.

By doing so, you’ll identify your strengths and weaknesses, understand which areas need to be improved and further boost the success of your online training course. Here are some sample questions you might like to include:

Trainer & delivery

How would you rate the quality of the teaching?

To understand your students’ opinions of the teaching quality, ask them about the effectiveness of the trainer (if relevant). You can add further questions such as:

• How would you rate your trainer’s expertise?
• What was the quality of the teaching?
• What do you think of the trainer’s proficiency?
• Did the trainer provide relevant examples during the training?
• Was the trainer able to answer all your questions and concerns?

How would you rate the overall course delivery?

• Was the training interactive enough?
• Were participation and interaction encouraged?
• Were the materials distributed helpful?
• How could it be improved?

Content

Was the training relevant to your needs?

Did it meet their expectations or targets? Do they feel comfortable handling related tasks as a result of completing the course? How could it further meet their needs?

Did you learn something new?

Even if your students already have some experience with the topic matter, it’s important that they still learn something new. By asking what they have learned, you might gain insight into the areas of your course that could be further developed or improved.

How engaging was the overall content?

To learn effectively, your course content should spark curiosity and get your students engaged with the topic matter. If they answer no, you should consider amending your structure or content- no one likes dry boring lessons!

Environment & accessibility online

How easy to use and navigate was the online learning environment?

Your online learning environment should be as user-friendly as possible, free from distractions or unnecessary content and help the learner achieve their learning goals efficiently. Does your platform do this?

How would you rate the quality of multimedia used within the course?

It’s not enough just to have text on your eLearning platform. You also need to use multimedia content such as training videos, relevant images and voice recordings. How well does your training course do this?

Did you encounter any technical problems while using our VLE?

Bugs and technical issues can be frustrating and damage trust, company reputation and the overall learner experience. Find out what went wrong and aim to fix it!

Face to face

Overall, how did you find the training facilities?

To support optimal learning, it’s important that your students find any physical learning environment comfortable and supportive of their learning needs. Do your training facilities do this?

Which aspects of the training environment do you think could be improved?

Allowing your students to provide feedback will help you make changes to your training environment for greater satisfaction and success.

Structure & duration

Your course structure should be well-organised, clear, logical and easy to follow. Did you provide this to your learner? Ask these questions to find out more:

• Was the content well organised and easy to follow?
• Was the content structure clear and logical?
• How would you describe the training pace?
• Did you have enough time allocated to complete the training?
• Were the training objectives clearly defined?
• Were the topics covered relevant to you?
• How well was the training structured?
• Do you think the course was easy to progress through?

Outcomes & satisfaction

Finally, you should finish your training survey with a series of questions that ask for feedback and check learner satisfaction. Ask these:

• How could this training be improved?
• Was the course different to what you initially expected? If so, why?
• How would you rate the training overall?
• What did you like the most about the training?
• What would you change about the training?
• Would you recommend this training to a friend or colleague?

Creating your survey

To get the maximum benefit from your training surveys, you should design them effectively and ask the questions correctly. Here are some tips:

• Ask open-ended questions: These can provide more insight
• Make sure you use easily understood language: Avoid jargon, slang or acronyms
• Avoid useless questions: stick to the questions that give you the feedback you are looking for
• Use your branding throughout your survey: This helps you maintain your professional image
• Close by thanking your students: They don’t have to submit course feedback so thank them for their time and consider offering a freebie, discount or other benefits

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned why you should create a training survey, when to ask for feedback and which questions you should consider asking for maximum insight. Create your survey then use the information to make improvements to your training course to help boost student satisfaction and further perfect your course.

Learn more with Bud

Bud is an end to end training management platform that can optimise the success of your online training courses. Whether delivering apprenticeships or vocational training, dealing with associated paperwork or managing the course itself, Bud can help. Find out more here.