I have recently sent out level 3 evaluations for an interactive workshop. I would like to find out if there are any benchmarks on the rate of return of level 3 evaluations.

And if there is any coorelation between the percent returned and a positive or negative response. In other words, are the evaluations more likely to be returned if the response is positive? Or more likely if the response is negative.

The response will depend on whether the evaluation is anonymous, in which case you'll get fewer returns, or with identified people. In any event getting Level 3 feedback can be challenging and often requires follow up phone calls to participants to get the evaluations returned. I have never seen a correlation between returned Level 3s and positive or negative responses.

You'll be fortunate if you get half back. A lot depends on the planning that went into it. For example, did the participants and their managers know going into this that they'd be asked to assess to what degree they're using what they learned after the class?

On a related note, your question serves as a good example of why it's so important for every person who has any type of job that relates to providing research take courses in qualitative and quantitative research. There are many things to know about accurate sampling, data collection, writing questionnaires, ethical procedures, etc.

Check out the site at http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html. Put in the number of surveys sent out and it will give you the suggested return rate for validation purposes.

When we send out our Level 3 evaluations and do not get the expected return rate (especially happens on small sample sizes), we include the following disclaimer in our report:
"The sample size and return rates represented in the sample did not meet the standard “95% Confidence Interval” necessary for survey reliability, so caution must be taken in generalizing the results to this occupational discipline for use in subsequent management decision-making."

I need help finding return-rate industry standards for training evaluations for levels 1, 2, 3 within large technology corporations like Dell, Cisco, HP, etc.

We now outsource some of our ILT and Org Dev business to partners. We must set standards for return rates for training evaluation and measurement. Level 1 is a simple online or paper form, but critical for feedback from customers on their perspective of overall value, and instr and course materials quality. We think 80% return rate would be the goal, but we are only getting 50-60%.

Level 2 uses an electronic technology to assure learning objectives were met including simple knowledge and skill questions to confirm what was learned. We want 65% eval return rate, but we are only getting 40-50%.

And level 3 is in-person individual contact where we confirm what was learned is actually being transferred to specific on-the-job tasks. Level 3 is still voluntary, yet required based on contractual commitments. We randomly contact 25% of students, with a return-rate goal of 35% of the 25%. Are return rate is only 10% of the 25%.

Any help would be appreciated finding research or at least corp/industry standards on eval return rates for levels 1, 2, & 3 when technical training is delivered using formal in-center and live virtual ILT within large corporations.