Start with a behavior worth observing
The fictional Bridge leadership program wants participants to run clearer project handoffs. Leader L-18 works through a practice assignment, receives feedback and tries the method at work. This is a teaching example, not a customer result. A technical training course, coaching provider or employment program would choose different behaviors and evidence.
Ask what a participant should do differently after learning. “Communicate better” is too broad to observe consistently. For this exercise, a useful handoff names the task, accountable owner, deadline and how an unresolved issue will be escalated. These are example criteria, not a validated leadership assessment.
Decide who needs the findings. The learner needs useful feedback; the facilitator needs to improve the teaching; the client may need a reviewed view of learning and later practice. One satisfaction score cannot serve all three purposes.
Choose evidence at the right moments
Before teaching, collect a suitable starting observation. During the course, keep an assignment or demonstration that shows how the person applies the method. At the end, assess the intended learning and ask about the experience separately. Later, check whether the person had an opportunity to use the skill and what happened when they did.
Use forms for repeatable fields, assignments or uploaded documents for demonstrated work, and feedback for context. Collect coaching notes only under an agreed purpose and access arrangement. A coach’s private working notes are not automatically evidence a client is entitled to receive.
Name a collection owner and a realistic window for each step. The calendar should follow the opportunity to practice rather than a universal 30-day rule. If a participant has not yet had that opportunity, record it; do not count it as failure to learn.
Agree the shared core; keep local collection useful
When training providers or delivery locations collect information independently, imposing one questionnaire can remove the detail they need. Begin instead with the decisions you must make together. Agree the few shared fields those decisions require, then let each team collect useful local detail.
Separate the continuing record from each new observation. Collect stable registration or profile information once where appropriate, link later evidence to that record, and ask for confirmation or an update only when needed. A changing location, job or organizational role needs an effective date. An annual check may suit one field; another needs updating when the change occurs.
Provider A uses a practical assignment; Provider B uses workplace observation. Both can supply a learner identifier, cohort and assessment date. Do not combine the two assessments as one score unless the evidence supports a common interpretation.
Write down the common field, its meaning, who supplies it and when it changes before launching collection. You will complete the comparison rules in the shared-definitions module. Governance starts here: collect only the fields needed for the stated purpose and decide who can view or correct them.
Make the first collection reusable
Link each item to the participant, client cohort, learning episode, source role and observation date. Keep the method and question version. If the program repeats next year, start a new learning episode while retaining an appropriate continuing participant link.
An application response can reduce repeated questions if it is current and suitable for the baseline purpose. Confirm changes rather than silently treating an old answer as a new observation. Preserve both dates where they describe different situations.
In a disconnected workflow, evaluation staff must rebuild these relationships from forms, assignment folders and client spreadsheets. The connected approach plans them at collection so later review can retrieve the original evidence. Test the plan with one learner journey before building a large instrument.
Work through the Bridge example
This is a fictional teaching example. Adapt the fields and rules to the question your own training program needs to answer.
| Moment | Source | Question answered |
|---|---|---|
| Before teaching | Short handoff task | What can L-18 demonstrate now? |
| During practice | Assignment and facilitator feedback | Which parts need another attempt? |
| Course end | Comparable task plus separate experience feedback | What was demonstrated; how was learning experienced? |
| Later use | Participant account and authorized corroboration | Was there an opportunity to apply it, and what was observed? |
Build this part of your plan in more detail
These lessons address the next practical questions in this module. Choose the detail your workflow needs, then return to complete the exercise.
- How to Run a Training Needs Assessment
Identify the task, evidence and operating barriers before choosing training.
- How to Design a Training Feedback Survey
Ask questions that lead to a useful delivery decision, with a clear privacy promise.
More practical questions in this module (9)
- How Do You Design an Intake Form for a Baseline?
Build a usable starting point for evaluation.
- How to Build a Theory of Change with AI: Prompts and Examples
If the intended change is not yet clear, work through the practical theory-of-change exercise before choosing collection fields.
- How to Build a Logic Model: Steps, Example and AI Prompt
If you need a program delivery model, distinguish activities, outputs and intended outcomes.
- How to Build an Organization Evidence Model
For outcome reporting, agree what the organization means and what its evidence can support before accepting new measures.
- How to Build a Funder Context Profile: Research to Reporting
For a funded workflow, distinguish the actual award requirements from preferences and unanswered questions.
- Turn your theory of change into a data-collection plan
If you already have a theory of change, turn it into collection moments, sources and owners.
- How to Collect Clean Data Inside Your Workflow
Place evidence inside the work, with a source, owner, useful context and a later follow-up.
- What Is Impact Measurement and Reporting?
If you need the measurement context first, connect intended outcomes, evidence and reporting within your chosen workflow.
- How Do You Apply the Kirkpatrick Model to a Survey?
Plan the evaluation evidence before choosing forms; keep reaction, learning, behavior and organizational results distinct.
Add this part to your plan
On workbook page 2, map one skill from baseline to later practice. Name the evidence, owner, timing and access for each moment. Identify the few shared fields, the local fields and which profile details should be reused or updated.
Download workbook (fillable PDF)Compare with a suggested answer
Bridge collects a starting task, a revised task and a later practice account. It keeps course enjoyment separate. Each observation carries L-18, the cohort, date and method. The later check records whether a real handoff opportunity occurred.
Self-check: Can a colleague explain which source answers each evaluation question?
Questions you may have
Is an end-of-course survey enough?
It can describe the experience and some self-reported learning. It cannot by itself show a starting point or later workplace application.
Must every program collect a baseline?
Collect one when the intended comparison needs a starting observation. Other questions, such as whether a participant can meet a criterion at exit, may use a different design.
Apply the method to your work
Use the five-part plan to assess the sources, analysis and permissions your team needs. The solution page shows where a connected platform can support that workflow.
Explore the training and programs solution →