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For our EAC 584 class, we were tasked with creating our idea of a training evaluation model. This is my attempt to do so. This presentation will be A Bridge to Success: A Training Evaluation Model, and I think the naming convention will become fairly apparent as we proceed through the presentation.

OVERVIEW
This is an overall view of the model itself and well talk to each section in more detail. But you can see again, as we talk about the Bridge to Success, we have a bridge created here with the various portions of our model. It takes us from our current status, where we are, to a higher end-state, a better end-state in the end. And, again, well talk about all of this in detail as we move through the presentation.

GAP
So, this is where we start. We start with, on the left-hand side, our current status. Its a lower hill, if you will, in this model. That is, were not as high up as we desire to be. Were not achieving whatever objectives or goals we may have set for ourselves. Then, on the right-hand side, we have an end-state. Its a higher hill. Its a higher level is another way to think of that. Its achieving more, whatever that more may be more skills, more knowledge, more return financially, a better working environment, etc. Between those two, theres a gap, and this is what I call the Region of Reduced Returns. I think that the repetitive R sound helps to remember it a little better. Essentially, its an area where this gap is the space, the losses that you are seeing i n your company, organization, personally whatever the case may be between your current status and your end-state. So, if you want to think of it numerically, if your current status is a 1 and your end state is a ten, then 2-9 would be the Region of Reduced Returns, that is, all of the the losses that youre seeing in -between these stages. So, if youre looking to achieve a particular goal, you may not achieve that right away, but you can still cut into that Region of Reduced Returns and achieve at least some success and be at least a little bit closer to that end-state in the end. How were going to do this, to cross that Region of Reduced Returns, to carry us from our current status to our new goal, our new location, the place, the level that we want to be is through a good, thorough training and evaluation model.

STAGE 1
The first step, in my opinion, is to do a needs assessment. It could be called a gap assessment or a task analysis or a many other names depending on what exactly youre doing with this model. But, the point here is that were determining and deciding what are the key factors or the key skills or knowledge or the particular items that we need to change, to improve, to carry us from the current status to the end state. Obviously, depending on the environment, there could be a lot of factors some seen, some unseen that are aiding us, assisting us in being where we are at the present time. So, through this assessment we determine which of those factors are important for us currently, which are not important, and which may not even be present that need to be present. We accomplish all this through the needs assessment and this helps us to focus our training and focus our evaluation instead of running around trying to look at everything and getting a very basic understanding of a lot of things, some of which may not even be factors. This helps us to get that pinpoint precision, that laser focus, on what we actually need to be paying attention to and how we need to go about creating our program and then evaluating that program to ensure were achieving what we set out to achieve.

STAGE 2
The second step is going to be to look at stakeholder concerns and this to me is a critical component because you want to the needs assessment and thats an academic, professional mindset of someone who has worked in training and worked in evaluation and has that understanding. At the same time, you definitely need to incorporate the stakeholders into this project. They need to feel that theyre i nvolved, they need to feel that theyre getting a return on their resources, whether that be a time investment, a monetary investement, both, or whatever the case may be. So, when thinking of questions, its important that we try to answer them. With thi s, we run the risk of potentially getting off track. So, its important that we attempt to alleviate their concerns, we mitigate that with the needs assessment and knowing what we need to be focused on ideally. So, if theres some

way we can answer a question for them thats not going to be detrimental to our training or to our evaluation then, by all means, I think thats something we need to do to comfort them, to educate them, to help them feel that this is a worthwhile project. At the same time, we c ertainly cant answer every concern, at least not in one program, and we dont want to focus on or deal with some issues that may not be pertinent to what were particularly trying to achieve at this time. So, if were working on a sales model for instanc e, then dealing with questions of ethical behavior or workplace environment or other situations wouldnt be pertinent to our particular focus, to our particular project. So, that wouldnt necessarily be something wed want to discuss with them in this instance. Weve done our needs assessment, so we know where we feel the program needs to go as the professionals, as the objective, outside observers and trainers and evaluators. What we want to get out of this stage of the process is to get the inside stak eholders opinions and concerns and issues and help them alleviate some of those and help them see a) what we found through our needs assessment, b) what we intend to do, and also c) what is something they can potentially add. Is there something theyve seen over time from that insider perspective that maybe we didnt see or something that they feel is important that we overlooked? And how can we incorporate that into what were going to do.

STAGE 3
The third step is program design and, obviously, this is a basic level model so if we were talking about program design we could discuss this for ages. In keeping this simple, its better to just say this is the part of the process where we design our training program. With that, we need to realize that its not that simple; its not as simple as designing a program. Theres a lot that goes into that. Theres time, resources, concerns over delivery methods. Is a classroom set up better? Is an online setup better? Do we need to go do this as off-site training or on-site training? Does it need to be multiple days? Does it need to be a single day or single session? What kind of audiovisual aids do we need to make the lecture model better or potentially a collaborative, group-style project? So you can see, in just a few seconds we can think of numerous questions to ask that go into designing the program. Thats, again, some of the more basic level questions we need to ask and have answered, so when we say this is the part where we design the training program, its not nearly as simple as that. But, once we have our needs assessment, we know where we need to focus our research. Once we have our stakeholder concerns, weve added that information into our process and we now know, based on what we think through our needs assessment as the outside, objective trainers and professionals and based on the stakeholder concerns of the insider perspective and what issues theyre seeing that they feel are important, we incorporate those two separate ideas into our overall model, our overall program, and say, this is where we want to go. This is going to be our final goal. So, now, based on those first two sections we know what questions we want to answer, what questions we feel are going to take us from our current status on the lower hill, that lower level, to our higher level end-state. Once we know that information, this is where we put it into the program design and create the mechanism that will carry us from the current status to the end state. The first two sections were trying to determine what we want to do or how were going to get from Point A to Point B and in this third section were creating the object to convey us from Point A to Point B.

STAGE 4
Our fourth section is going to be program implementation and, again, its not as easy as it sounds, but this is the part of the project where the rubber meets the road, if you will. In the first two sections, our needs assessment and stakeholder concerns weve determined where we want to go or how we intend to get where we want to go. In the third section we created the model that we feel will effectively carry us there and now were going to actually put it into action. Were going to implement our program design, and were going to do those classroom sessions, hold those lectures, do the online training, whatever weve decided we need to do to begin the process of moving from that current status to that end state. Well do this by actually introducing our program to the participants and getting them involved and getting that information to them that we feel they need to help them cross this bridge were building to carry them from that lower level to that higher level.

STAGE 5

The final stage is going to be the results and analysis. This is the stage where well actually find out how effective we were. So, weve done everything. We came to a conclusion of what we felt would be the effective questions and effective goals that this particular problem needs. We designed a program to meet those questions, to meet those goals, and weve implemented it to provide individuals the means to carry themselves to the next level to gain that knowledge, gain those job skills, gain that return on investment, to gain whatever those returns are that theyre not seeing currently. Weve given them that ability through our program implementation and now, in this last stage, we gather our results and analysis and we see how effective we were. This is where, in my opinion, you would do a summative evaluation of the program to see if it indeed did achieve the goals that we intended it to achieve. We also gather data, analyze it, and present it back to the stakeholders. This is where we would attempt to show them, Heres what you need to do. Heres what we have done and what still needs to be done to continue this process of moving from the current status to the new end-state, if you will. By presenting them that information, we allow them to continue to better their organization, their company, in the future, however that may be. This may be an on-going training program that we have to continue with. It may be something that we simply can do one time and achieve what we intend to achieve.

Evaluation
Through this entire model what I have not talked about thus far that Ill mention now is, as you can see, the pillars holding this bridge up are the pillars of evaluation. I mentioned doing the summative evaluation at the end of the course, and, while I do believe thats important, I think what we need to realize abou t evaluation is that it needs to be consistent throughout the program. So, as were doing our needs assessment, as were gathering stakeholder concerns, as were designing our program, implementing, and then reviewing results and data analysis, were constantly evaluating. Were evaluating ourselves. How did we do our needs assessment? What could we have done better with the needs assessment? Did we actually get all the information we could have or needed to get? As we look at stakeholder concerns, what could we have done better there? What could we have focused on more or focused on less? Did we find ourselves getting sidetracked by the stakeholder concerns and wasting time and resources and energy dealing with issues that werent pertinent? Or did this actually help us achieve what it was set out to achieve, which was to focus our project even more? Into design and implementation, we constantly are evaluating the methodology used, the theoretical background, and any biases you may bring in. We look at any of those things we talked about before what audiovisual aids to use, presentation methods, presenters, trainers, locations all of this stuff is constantly being evaluated in terms of its ability to make this program better or more effective in some way. And, then, through implementation into results and analysis. This is the summative evaluation that I was talking about. Gathering the data to see if you actually achieved what you set out to achieve; if you actually went from the lower level that you currently find yourself at and actually crossed that bridge build that bridge effectively and then crossed that bridge crossing those regions of reduced returns to a newer, higher level of performance or returns.

Conclusion
As we conclude the presentation, what I want to emphasize is that this is not necessarily a one-step process. What Id like to have you envision is that this model would be almost a continuum, or constant bridge. Because as you reach this higher end-state on the right, what you may find is that that is simply a current status that you can further improve upon. So, instead of just one bridge that takes us from one lower level to one higher level and now were done, I think its important to understand tha t the higher level that we currently achieve may not be the highest level that we could achieve. So, using the analogy I discussed earlier where were moving from 1 to 10. Maybe we reach 10 and then realize that 20 and 30 and 40 still lie ahead of us. So, we build another bridge using these same methods, these same five primary sections that Ive talked about under -girded and supported throughout by the concept of proper and valid evaluation. Perhaps as we build these further bridges as we move from 10 to 20, 20 to 30, and so on that evaluation factor comes into play and we continually refine and modify our program to make it more effective so it, perhaps, becomes easier for people to transition from those lower levels to a better, higher end-state. So, in conclusion, you can see that this is my model The Bridge to Success and, as I said, I think the naming convention becomes fairly apparent. But, I feel like this is a visual aid that helps people see that were moving from a place we dont necessarily want to be to a place where we could be, could achieve more than maybe we

think we can achieve, could do better at whatever the situation may be. And then, from there, we continue to improve in the future by building further bridges, carrying us higher and higher and getting us better and better at whatever we want to do and avoiding those regions of reduced returns where were not maximizing our ability or our companys capabilities or what we could be achieving as a person or an organization.