Call for Chapters: Handbook of Research on Training Evaluation in the Modern Workforce

Editors

Scott Frasard, PhD
Global Manager, Training Measurement & Evaluation
eBay

Frederick Carl Prasuhn
Founder and CEO
Tech-Wise Educational Services, LLC

Call for Chapters

Proposals Submission Deadline: October 30, 2015
Full Chapters Due: March 30, 2016
Submission Date: July 31, 2016

Introduction

Evaluating training is a key part of the training enterprise. Organizations invest significant time, money, and other resources into conducting training for their employees and want to know that these efforts provide benefits. Properly designed and executed evaluations are able to identify training effects and connect changes in employee behaviors and business metrics, which can then be valuated for a return on investment directly associated with the training effort. Unfortunately, most evaluation efforts fail to make a convincing cause and effect connection between training and results. Evaluation is a technical field requiring a great deal of knowledge and skill to accurately isolate training effects from other unrelated influences within organizations.

Training evaluation is a systematic process of collecting data about training initiatives to answer questions regarding its impact, enhance knowledge about its contributions, and make decisions about its future. A large array of texts exists today explaining how training evaluations should take place, methods to design evaluations, and how to obtain convincing evidence about training’s impact. Unfortunately, most of these books are primarily theory and use examples to illustrate key points. While this is a tremendous help to some in the evaluation field, evaluation practitioners want to see what theory looks like in real-life applications. Resources explaining in great detail the methods and approaches to training evaluation are a great start, but when one tries to bridge theory to practice, the challenges of practice begin to rear their ugly heads. Learning through experience and failing forward or trial and error are often the only ways evaluators, especially those new to the field, have to learn, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

This book will be a compilation of actual training evaluation case studies drawn from across a multitude of fields to provide the reader with a detailed view of how the authors used theory in the swamp of practice. This case study approach will allow the challenges, solutions, and successes to shine through while providing abundant ideas and lessons learned the reader can apply to their own evaluation work. Organized according to Jack Phillips’ (1997) five levels of evaluation, this book will focus on the higher-order levels: (a) level 3 – transfer of learning, (b) level 4 – impact on business metrics, and (c) level 5 – return on investment. As opposed to the first two levels (level 1 – learner reaction/satisfaction and level 2 – learner achievement) these higher order evaluation levels, when conducted properly, demonstrate training’s impact on those things organizations care about most. The results, when quantified, demonstrate how training initiatives contributed value to the organization in ways to which businesses can relate.

Objective

This book’s objective is to bring experiences to life to help evaluators and aspiring evaluators bring theory into their practice as a companion to books detailing evaluation theory and methods. Evaluators, especially those new to the field or with limited experience applying theory into practice, will be able to modify their practices by learning from the experience of others. Reading these case studies and applying the lessons learned will improve training evaluation practice and help evaluators demonstrate training’s impact with tangible evidence to support effectiveness arguments. Whether used as a standalone text or as a supplement to other evaluation texts, this collection of actual evaluation stories will help connect theory to practice, whether used by evaluators or evaluation educators.

Target Audience

The intended target audience includes anyone in the training, adult/workforce education, and evaluation fields as practitioners or educators. Anyone who conducts workplace training evaluations will benefit greatly from this book. Additionally, those who educate/train current/future evaluators as part of a training program, college course, or degree will benefit from these case studies as a means to teach about the realities of evaluation in practice.

Recommended Topics

Contributors are welcome to submit chapters on the following topics relating to actual training evaluation work conducted in practice:

– Planning and conducting an evaluation of transfer of learning
– Planning and conducting an evaluation of training impact on business metrics
– Planning and conducting an evaluation of training return on investment
– Challenges incorporating evaluation theory into practice
– Processes used to design appropriate evaluation strategies
– Connecting cognitive/psychomotor exams in training to on-the-job performance
– Test development in workplace training
– Applying theory in the swamp of practice
– Using training evaluation to improve practice
– Using evaluation to improve future training

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before October 30, 2015, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of the proposed chapter via the IGI submission portal. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 4, 2016 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by March 30, 2016. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2016.

Important Dates

October 30, 2015: Proposal Submission Deadline
January 4, 2016: Notification of Acceptance
March 30, 2016: Full Chapter Submission
May 30, 2016: Review Results Returned
July 30, 2016: Final Chapter Submission

Inquiries

Inquiries regarding this publication can be forwarded to:
Dr. Scott Frasard
Global Manager, Training Measurement & Evaluation
eBay
Tel.: (770) 490-0426
E-mail: pmdc3573@uga.edu

Propose a Chapter

Flyer for distribution