Case Analysis Of Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels And Its Application Strategies

With the continuous development of training and developmentindustry, training evaluation is playing a more important role in promotingorganization’s performance improvement. How to effectively evaluate trainingprograms has become a major issue facing the training professionals. Currently, themost frequently used evaluation model is the Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels. However,there still exist a number of misunderstandings and controversies concerning themodel itself. Besides, the evaluation levels are incomplete, evaluation tools andmethods have shown drawbacks when it comes to specific application. Therefore, it isquite rewarding to analyze the evolution, typical cases and application status of theKirkpatrick’s Four Levels, from which experiences can be summarized and pertinentimprovement strategies are supposed to be proposed.This thesis consists of five chapter, the main ideas of each chapter are as follows,In chapter one, the author analyzes the challenges in the training anddevelopment industry as well as the application status of the Kirkpatrick’s FourLevels, then the author briefs several misunderstandings and controversies concerningthe model itself. Chapter one is ended with a concise overview of relevant literatureresearch on the Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels.In chapter two, the author introduces the ideological origins, stage of the art,major works, related concepts and controversies concerning the model itself, trying toobtain a comprehensive understanding of the Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels.In chapter three, the author selects four enterprises using Kirkpatrick’s FourLevels as their evaluation tools in training programs. These programs are respectivelythe Cisco online Return-to-Vendor program, the Gap’s Leadership Training forSupervisors program, the American Management University’s Action E-Learningproject and the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit’s online tobacco control curriculum.The case analysis consists of performance gap analysis, training design andimplementation, four levels evaluation and application strategy summary. Emphasizesare centered on reaction level, learning level, behavior level and result levelevaluation as well as the particular strategies, methods and tools being adopted,conclusions are drawn then. In chapter four, the author summarizes the principles, methods and tools intraining principle, training process and training evaluation respects on the basis of thecase analysis, from which pertinent strategies are concluded.In chapter five, the author predicts the application trends and research spaces ofthe Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels.