Learning isn’t a one-and-done activity. Too often, organizations provide learning, test participants’ knowledge, and if they pass, leave it at that. But that’s not very helpful if you’re looking to a create a continuous learning culture, or if you want to make sure learning has long-term impact. We’ll dive into how you can get the most out of knowledge checks to make them more than just embellishment at the end of a dose of corporate training.
What are knowledge checks?
A knowledge check (or knowledge test) is a short assessment or activity designed to gauge learners’ understanding of a specific topic or concept. They’re a critical component of the learning process that ensures knowledge is presented, retained, and applied effectively by learners. Knowledge checks need to be done at key intervals to help organizations create stronger learning programs that benefit learners and improve knowledge retention.
Where you’re going wrong with knowledge checks
There’s nothing necessarily “wrong” with a knowledge check. But too often, we see people not really seeing the vision behind knowledge tests. Knowledge checks done properly should go beyond simple, static checks of knowledge at any point, but a lot of them just… don’t.
A big factor is that it’s easy to make a knowledge test overly focused on recall, rather than the understanding or applying knowledge. And this can come down to when you actually do knowledge checks (e.g., only immediately after training is completed) or the kinds of questions you ask in the test. While it’s good to know that learners can answer “what is the definition of X?”, that doesn’t actually demonstrate that they can apply that knowledge in a real-world situation. It also doesn’t reinforce learning after the fact. All it really does is emphasize a pass-fail dichotomy rather than a development roadmap.
And it doesn’t help that knowledge checks often focus on details that aren’t important to learning objectives or organizational outcomes. If you’re not properly measuring the capabilities required for business success, then you’ll be collecting inaccurate data on learning and performance. This prevents you from making data-backed strategic decisions for the business and improving your learning programs.
How to enhance your knowledge checks
Consider this: You wouldn’t give someone a driver’s license without restrictions immediately after they pass their written tests. The test indicates that they can recall road rules, sure, but they’re required to prove they can apply them in real life (and practice manoeuvres they’re not so good at) before they can graduate from a learner’s permit to a full driver’s license.
This is what logbooks and competency tests are: Knowledge checks. So how can you make knowledge checks for e-learning as effective as they are for a driver’s license? We’ve got a few strategies up our sleeves:
- Align them with organizational strategy
- Use technology
- Focus on real-world application
- Embed them in the learning journey.
Align with organizational strategy
Capabilities are derived from organizational strategy and outline the skills, knowledge, behaviors, processes, and tools that combine to achieve business goals. They’re the foundation of L&D, providing an outline for personalized development plans so employees are equipped with the right capabilities to perform their jobs (and contribute to business success).
This is what a knowledge check should be targeting. If your knowledge checks are designed to assess capabilities, then you get an idea of how well employees are performing them (i.e. what their knowledge is) and you have better and more in-depth questions to ask and answer. They’re essentially a capability assessment, which measures capabilities on a levelled scale of competency ranging from emerging (or beginner) to advanced. The idea is that a knowledge test should reveal how well a business’s workforce is equipped to deliver business strategy, and where there could be improvement in order to achieve goals.
Use technology
Most learning management systems (LMS) have some kind of built-in knowledge check ability, but we prefer the more specific performance learning management system (PLMS), which run knowledge checks in the form of capability assessments. PLMSs are inherently capability-aligned, so they’re the best at positioning your business for effective knowledge checks that have actual implications for business performance. And we get it. You’re probably wondering why we’re suggesting you spend money on a piece of software when you could just do it all manually across a couple of spreadsheets. As we learned with Covid in England, spreadsheets can easily fail, not to mention the administrative burden of manually keeping them up to date (especially when you have a larger workforce). A PLMS, on the other hand, keeping it all on one connected platform, from capability assessment to assigning training that will close capability gaps.
Focus on real-world applications
If the learning you provide isn’t making an impact in how your learners behave in their day-to-day, then it was pretty pointless learning. Again, you wouldn’t hand a driver’s license to someone who checked a box saying speeding was against the law, but continues to speed every time they get into the driver’s seat.
Of course, you wouldn’t know that the driver from our example constantly broke the speed limit if you never tested how well they understood and applied road rules. So too must your knowledge checks, well, actually check knowledge. They should focus on scenario-based questions that go beyond recall and definitions and dive into real-life challenges and situations that learners actually have to deal with in their day-to-day jobs. These questions are all connected to and outlined by employees’ specific capabilities and their assigned competencies, so you’ll get an accurate idea of what your employees know and where they still need development.
Embed with the learning journey
Don’t wait until after learning is done—or worse yet, a yearly performance review—to perform a knowledge check. The detached, annual performance review is only going to demoralize and disengage employees. Partly because traditional performance reviews reduce them to a number, and partly because they often go nowhere in terms of development. It’ll be especially bad if the knowledge check reveals they were doing something wrong all along (and that it was never corrected by a manager).
Instead, you should be providing knowledge checks throughout the learning journey at several key points.
- Pre-assessment: Perform a knowledge check before learning to determine what capabilities learners already have and what capabilities they need to develop
- During training: This is more feedback than a knowledge check, but it’s crucial for establishing a point of contact between learners and their managers and providing actionable feedback as needed in the moment.
- Post-assessment: Test how knowledge improved since learning was completed to determine what—if any—further training is needed.
Key takeaways
Knowledge checks—when done right—are critical in creating a sustainable and continuous learning culture. The only problem is they’re treated as a final step to the L&D process, rather than an active part of ensuring its success from the beginning.
The best way to employ knowledge checks is to embed them throughout the learning process. Don’t just slap them on at the end to see if learners can recall content from their training. Use them instead to assess what learners need to improve, how learners are faring on their learning journey, how well they retained learning, and what further learning they need to improve.
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