Consider Outside Help. Consider asking for our support. We have learned from experience; using these questions is not always as straightforward as it may appear. Subtle and unexpected roadblocks can arise.
Gather Core Team. Gather a small team (no more than six people)—those who are interested or open to exploring the use of DEIA questions. Ensure you have people with learner-survey expertise and experience.
Partner with Key Stakeholders. Partner too with key stakeholders—those who can exert leverage to support or oppose your initiative.
Educate Stakeholders. Educate and seek input from key stakeholders about (a) performance-focused learner-survey design considerations, (b) the purpose of adding DEIA questions, and (c) your plans for how you will use the data. It is critical to prepare your stakeholders in advance to avoid unnecessary resistance.
Plan to Pilot. Before rolling out the questions organization-wide, pilot the questions on one or two courses (or other events) that are representative of the kinds of programs for which you will ultimately use them.
Select a Few Questions. Decide what questions you want to pilot and whether you’ll add them to your standard learner-survey questions or improve your learner survey questions with performance-focused learner-survey questions.
Invite Learner Perspectives. Consider inviting a small number of interested learners to participate in a survey-completion interview. Meet individually with each learner and have them answer the survey questions while talking aloud about their perspectives on the questions. This will bring you additional insights into how your learning intervention was experienced by your learners.
Plan for Future Improvement. Make a plan for how you will use the data, what your reporting will look like, how your instructors and learning designers will be integrated into the data review and learning-design improvement process.
Seek a Review. Seek out expertise to reality check your plan. We are available to help and may see issues you hadn’t considered.
Deploy Learning and Learner Surveys. Deploy your learning and the learner surveys as you normally would. Make sure you give learners time during learning to complete the surveys.
