Open‐ended course evaluations: a response rate problem?

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine participants' response rate on dual style training course evaluation forms. These combine structured and open‐ended formats. Pencil and paper forms have a long history of use by trainers in business and commerce and more recently in education. Research methods texts tend to have neglected the issue of response rates with this type of form.Design/methodology/approach – Approximately 2,000 course participants attending 28 courses completed evaluation forms. These were designed with a series of structured responses scales followed by a section for open‐ended comments.Findings – It was found that the completion rate for the open‐ended sections was low and thus validity was suspect. Various explanations were offered for this. Subsequently when a redesigned evaluation form was administered to a further 1,641 course participants it was found that response rates increased dramatically when open‐ended sections were placed earlier in the questionnaire.Practical i...

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