Hi-

I am trying to put together a level 3 eval for a program we introduced several months back. How does one account for prior knowledge when assessing programs. If the questions is, "Please rate the extent with which the program has enabled you to give constructive feedback". How can you account for individuals who already had the skills? They may answer in the negative as they already had the skills and the program has not really added to anything to their abilities.
Thoughts?
Thanks!

All adult learning is influenced by other factors, so you really cannot dismiss prior knowledge. What you can do is ask some basic contextual questions so you can assess the validity of the other responses... and/or always have some type of analysis that has the "before" picture. I've seen level 3 evals that have "before" and "after" columns.

Thanks FF, I actually created a filter. "Do you have prior training in...?"
I think thas has helped.

You might also try a simple wording change to:

Please rate the extent with which the program has improved your ability to give constructive feedback.

That way you learn about the individual's personal assessment and the degree to which the learning activity is aligned with the target population.

I agree. However I feel that nuance woud have gone unnoticed. The general culture here is "Either I know it or I don't. If I do, why should I learn more."