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Participant evaluation tools

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How do you know what participants thought about the workshop? There are many ways of finding out.

Here is a small selection of workshop evaluation tools that you can use. It offers a variety of approaches, depending on type of group, workshop and circumstance.

Have fun!

Purpose

A selection of tools to capture participants’ evaluation of the workshop.

1. Open
questions flipsheets

Time: 10 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Put up separate flipsheets in different parts of the room each with different open questions. For example:

  • What for you was the most valuable part of the workshop?
  • What did you find least useful?
  • What could have been done differently?
  • What did you think of the facilitation of the workshop?
  • What will you do differently as a result of this workshop?

Invite the group to circulate around the room and write their responses.

2. Smiles,
frowns,
suggestions

Time: 5 minutes

 

 

 Draw the following symbols on a flipchart:

😊   😩   ?

Ask participants to call out smiles (what worked well), frowns (what didn’t work so well) and suggestions (what can we do differently next time) and write them near the appropriate symbol.

3. Circle shuffle

Time: 10 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 This can be used to get a sense of how people feel about the workshop, rather than a written evaluation. Stand in a tight circle, arm-in-arm or all with arms around both neighbours’ shoulders.

All shuffle to the right until one person calls “Stop!” The person who called out shares one thing they have enjoyed, valued or learnt today.

Then the circle shuffles the opposite way until someone else calls “Stop!” And so on.

4. Evaluation
grid

Time: 5 minutes

 

 

 

 

 List all the activities you’ve done during the day in a left-hand column on a flipsheet (see below). You could also add aspects such as facilitation and venue.

Invite the group to take marker pens and place a dot against each question in the appropriate column for them, and add comments to expand on their answers.

You could then share the final result and ask what they notice about this feedback.
 

 

    😊   😔    😩     Comments

Exercise 1: Social speedometer

Exercise 2: An action is nonviolent if…

(List other exercises and activities…)

How was the facilitation?

How was the venue?

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

5. Pie chart

Time: 5 minutes

 

 Quick & easy! Draw a pie chart with each segment representing a component of the workshop – each session, venue, food etc. Invite participants to mark a dot in each segment – the closer to the centre, the more positive the feedback.

6. X,Y grid

For a general feel of the workshop, draw an X,Y right-angle. X can be for enjoyable, Y can be for valuable. Participants put a dot in the space that’s true for them. You can do it for individual sessions as well.

 

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