Planning & Facilitating Valuable Workshops (Part Four): Evaluating Your Workshop
Pipe cleaners? I’ll explain…
This is Part Four in a four part series in planning, facilitating, and evaluating a workshop, designed to assist you if you’re new to the world of workshop facilitation or want to find more ways to improve what you’re already doing.
In Part One, we focused on essential things to consider before planning your workshop. In Part Two, we learned how best to structure a workshop for maximum effect, using my workshop template. In Part Three, we discussed the skills needed to be an effective workshop facilitator. Today, let’s discuss the final phase in workshop facilitation: gathering feedback from your participants as a way to improve your workshop.
Just as a direct service provider gathers feedback on her services at her agency or organization, evaluating your workshop is important in order to improve the workshop for another set of participants. You get direct feedback from your participants on what worked, what can be improved, and how the participants processed the information they’ve learned from your workshop.
You’re getting feedback on four components:
*Usefulness- Did the participant find the workshop useful? As we know from Part One, sometimes participants are attending your workshop because it’s mandatory, based on skill set on potential knowledge increase expected by the person or group who have invited you to facilitate. Either way, can the participant see herself applying what she’s learned in her life, school, or work?
*Workshop flow- Did the participant feel there was enough time for the topic being covered? Often, you’ll be told how much time you’ll have for your workshop, and you want to make the best use of it. Going back to Part Two, you have the option of delving deeper into an aspect of a topic, or the option of being more broad. Did the participant feel that she was given enough time to do the workshop activities? Was too much time given? Did the workshop end abruptly or was there an appropriate conclusion?
*Facilitator style- Did the participant feel that the facilitator was knowledge on the topic? Did the participant feel welcomed into the workshop space? Did the participant feel that her voice was heard? Did the participant feel that the facilitator was able to guide the conversation and handle distractions accordingly? In Part Three, we know that you should have command over your topic but be approachable to your participants. This can keep them engaged.
*Knowledge increase/behavioral change- Did the participant learn something that they didn’t know before? Does the participant plan to change their behavior? This is similar to evaluating the usefulness of your workshop, but this time it focuses primarily on the participant. (more…)