Approaches to Evaluation of Training

In this article, (found at http://www.ifets.info/journals/5_2/eseryel.html) it outline show evaluation is a complex task, and often not undertaken due to the complexity or lack of experience/skills.
The 4 purposes:
Evaluation of student learning
evaluation of instructional materials
transfer of training
return on investment
Were interesting as it seems that only the first 2 were relevent for the situation that I have chosen.
When looking at the systems approaches, CIPP (1987) is the most useful one in my situation:
Context: obtaining information about the situation to decide on educational needs and to establish program objectives
Input: identifying educational strategies most likely to achieve the desired result
Process: assessing the implementation of the educational program
Product: gathering information regarding the results of the educational intervention to interpret its worth and merit
However, as he suggests, they do not address the collaborative process of evaluation.
Eseryel also suggests that systematic and planned evaluation was generally not found in practice, nor was there a distinction between formative evaluation and summative evaluation. The most common type of evaluation is of the student performance, in the form of assessment (which is a heavy focus in our school and educational setting) and not enough on the reviewing the design of the instruction based on the results of the assessment. Much of the focus is on the learner, not the course design.
In my experience and in discussing this issue with a number of staff, it seems that some staff are aware of inadequacies of the instructional design, but are also equally aware of the weakness of the students, and only use assessment to fromally "prove" that their judgements are correct.

It has also recently arisen the plan to modify the assessment to suit the final outcome, as Eseryel suggests - the bias for internal evaluators (and in this situation - the assessers) the bias may have a very positive effect on course uptake - even at the school level.

One staff member has said to another: "Mark this task easily so that we don't turn off the students from choosing this subject!"

Similarly, evaluation tools are limited, thereaction sheets are adding to the failure of evluation in training scenarios.

My thoughts about the parts of this article worth mentioning.