Importance of Conducting Assessments in Training

30th June 2021

Every time we listen to the terms ‘assignments’ or ‘exams’, a switch in our head gets flicked, and our entire system is flooded with anxiety and fear. The interesting part is no matter how old we get, the fear of attending and submitting assignments and exams remains. Assessments can be defined as the process of using measures to gauge the students’ understanding of the taught topics and their progress in parallel with the flow of the sessions.

In several countries across the globe, governments and educational bodies have proposed the removal of strict examinations from the schooling routine as they restrict students from studying to learn. Instead, they just soak up knowledge to pass the exams. That said, the focus has shifted to assessing students in ways that enable them to synthesize and apply the knowledge on a practical scale – carving the route for more sustainable and meaningful learning.

This entire notion also finds relevance in the training and development segment. Corporate trainers often look for ways to assess their trainees so that the trainees can learn and implement the newly acquired skills. The need for practical application of knowledge is even more germane in the context of corporate training because the learnings must seep into their daily actions and escalate their performance quality. Usually, corporate trainer certification programs explore a variety of useful assessment methods that trainers can deploy to track their learners’ progress.

When it comes to the exam debate, we agree that exams are too structured, rigid, and stringent. They push students to pursue quantified grades, while losing interest in the beauty of absorbing new knowledge. Moreover, exams are focused on declarative knowledge wherein the emphasis is on checking the students’ ability to recall facts covered in the learning sessions, without requiring them to analyse and evaluate the implications of those facts. Nevertheless, assessments are here to stay, perhaps in different formats that makes the learning process more exciting. In this blog, we will discuss why assessments are important for trainers to conduct.
 

• We human beings love objective, intelligible, and specific goals. Once we have a set of objectives, we can measure our progress towards achieving it. Assessments play a pivotal role in achieving these objectives. If you are hosting training sessions on how to manage consumer complaints, you would want to see specific developments in your learners that will indicate that they have comprehended the tactics to handle consumer complaints. Thus, you would establish criteria, and the fulfilling of each criterion would mark the learners’ progress. How would you check if they are fulfilling the criteria? You would inevitably have to assess them in a certain way. These could include group activities, individual reports, real-life practices, etc.
   
• Importantly, assessments are also a good way for learners to interact and strengthen their grip on their learnings. In the example above, when the learners engage in activities where in their ability to handle consumer complaints are showcased, they get to realize their strengths and weaknesses, and seek for ways to improve them. This is more likely to occur in assessments that are more practical and hands-on in nature.

The real challenge lies in devising assessments that are impactful. A lot of thought must be invested behind developing the rubrics against which the learners will be assessed. If the rubrics and criteria for assessment are not relevant to the training sessions, then the entire purpose of assessing the learners will become obsolete. Some of the features of good assessments that corporate trainers and trainers in other fields must keep in mind are as follows:
 

• The assessments must be congruent with the instructions and not something completely off-topic that the learners are unaware of. Hence, constructing instructions that serve the learning objectives is equally important.
   
• The assessments must include authentic tasks that encourages the learners to truly interact with the learning content.
   

• Trainers must use a variety of tasks and activities to assess the learners.
   

• The assessments must be based on criteria that students know and understand.
   
• Since corporate trainers deal with adult learners, it is always a good idea to involve the students when developing the assessment activities.
   
• Assessment should always closely focus on what students have learned and can do.
   
• Instead of having one final exam, trainers must opt for continual, ongoing assessments so that the learners’ progress can be constantly tracked.

Those seeking a career as a corporate trainer with a corporate trainer certificate should have a strong hold on conducting effectual assessments to ensure that the ultimate learning objectives are being met. If learning objectives were the end, we can say that assessments are the means to the end.

Written By : Shivangi Chakraborty