The Kirkpatrick Model: some facts on the past, present and future

It started in 1959 when Don Kirkpatrick wrote a series of four articles, each related to one subject at a time: he categorized them into reaction, learning, behavior, and results.

His first article was on reactions to learning (level 1). Then, he wrote about the learning itself and to what degree did the participates acquire the intended knowledge, skills and attitudes based on their participation in the learning event (level 2). Next, he wrote about behavior, to what degree did participants apply what they learned when they got back to their jobs. Finally, he wrote about results, to what degree were targeted results reached as a result of the learning event.

People in the industry talked about these four levels for decades. Did you know, it wasn't until 1993 that he institutionalized the four levels within a published book.

The model is not really changing today, but the way it is being used moving forward is a bit like reverse engineering. Formally, the typical learning model started with learning objectives, build on that and eventually the results were measured down the line months later. Changes were then made in the learning objectives based upon the results received. But, the feedback loop was quite long and took many iterations to improve, this is being called the chain of evidence.

Now, the chain of evidence is being reverse engineered. The final results or the goal achievement is modeled first. The model is socialized within the executive team and a concensus is reached. This becomes the development of the Level 4. Next, Level 3 is built, the behaviors to be exhibited based upon the results that are to be achieved. From there, the learning events are created that will teach those exhibited behaviors, Level two. Finally, the reactions are planned that the participants expect from the event, level one. I guess they are calling this the Reverse Kirkpatrick Model. The feedback loop is certainly shorter, although the development time is more complex.

One anecdotal tidbit I came across: every presentation that Don does in any venue is still done with the use of an overhead projector! Now he tells his audiences that "You are looking at a new piece of equipment, a special technology". Most believe him cause they never have seen anything like it.

Why are companies moving away from older learning systems?

Why is this happening all of a sudden? Is this a case of follow the leader? Why migrate to another system when you have spent lots of money in getting the first one correctly positioned?

I'd like to inject my thoughts into this market phenom in a series of short articles on the best practices in selecting your 2nd or even 3rd Learning Management System.

People get tired of their systems, people just get tired of things they own, whether they be personal or business. When things get old, you want to freshen things up...like getting a new paint job or getting a new piece of furniture.

So, why not freshen up your technology system? Well, it's not that easy. Many companies purchased systems years ago when the way of the world said: "buy this, install this, customize this and you'll love this". There are many people dependent upon those systems, IT folks keeping it backed up, database people writing scripts.

I see companies with learning systems that are 5 and 6 years old and you know what, they never got freshened up. Same old look and feel, same old functionality. In fact, its the same old people who are using them...they can't get the newer employees to learn and develop because they are trying to satisfy their needs with older, tired-looking, and slower-working learning technologies.

So, these companies are on the hunt for newer technologies, fresher looks, faster systems and more importanly, something they can purchase and NOT have the same staleness fall into their laps in another 3 years.

Companies are digging deeper in new technologies and service models that utlize Software as a Service, such as salesforce.com, workday ERP, igoogle for business.

There is no hardware, software, middleware, databases, or business intelligence tools to buy, install, maintain, and upgrade. It is based upon a multi-tenancy model that means that each customer securely shares one physical instance of software without ever seeing each other’s data.

There are No Pain Upgrades, seamless for that matter...
With traditional on-premise applications, many customers often fall drastically behind the latest technology & feature releases. With SaaS, all software updates and upgrades are seamless delivered throughout the year to all customers at one time.

Use The Best Available Technology...
Make sure your product is built on a next-generation architecture (using .NET 2.0 and AJAX) that enables the deliver of services faster – deliver implementations & integrations through the use of Web services - so they can easily interact with other applications. In this way, the platform is always moving ahead, it's not getting about getting stale.