The ideal structure of a seminar evaluation with a feedback sheet

Why should I have my seminar evaluated?

Very simple answer. With evaluations from feedback forms you receive first-hand personal impressions of your seminar from your event visitors.

Get to know the expectations and needs of the participants, optimize the course of events, adapt the contents to the demands and target groups and expand your seminar offer from the existing feedback.

Only through a sustainable improvement of the quality of your seminar, you can guarantee the success of the seminar and strengthen customer loyalty. Take your training event to the next level and create an extraordinary participant experience.

At what point in the seminar should I collect feedback from the participants?

It is not possible to say exactly when is the best time to collect participant feedback and how often they should be asked. There are several ways and times to ask for the feedback of your event visitors.

In the following we show you several options as to when you can collect feedback from your seminar participants:

>> Video: When is the best time to gather feedback after an event or seminar? <<

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Option 1: After the event

One of the most common times to get seminar feedback from participants is either immediately after the event or a few days later.

After the event, the participants have a final opinion about the content and the general conditions they have found. The event visitors could also get a clear picture of the course of the event (e.g. structured or chaotic).

If the survey is sent out to the participants a few days later, after the end of the event, some of these participants have probably already had some experience with the content they learned. This might give you even more meaningful answers to your questions.

The disadvantage of this option is that if you ask for feedback directly after the seminar, many of you may not feel like answering a questionnaire right now, or if the survey takes place a few days later, the participants might be mentally distant so that the participation rate will probably be low.

In addition, it is possible that impressions that affect the participant during the event may not be present at a later date.

Option 2: Before the last program point

Have you ever thought of doing the seminar survey before the last point of the program?

If you set the time of the survey before the last agenda item, you can be sure that all participants are still on site. Also, you will have the desired attention from all participants – if you have not overrun the seminar by quite some time.

With this option you will probably achieve the highest participation rate with only one survey used for the seminar.

Furthermore, you can share the results directly with the seminar participants. If you, for example, have asked about satisfaction, this would be a good starting point to discuss positive and negative results during the seminar.

The disadvantage would be that if you have given practical tasks, they could not be implemented at this point and you cannot get feedback on them. However, you can still send out a separate survey a few days later on practical implementation areas.

Option 3: During the seminar

Another way to get valuable feedback from the seminar participants would be after each break or topic block.

This method has the great advantage that you can use several short questionnaires that specifically address the individual thematic blocks of the seminar.

By shortening the questionnaire, you increase the motivation of the seminar participants, because the questionnaires are very short and can be answered quickly. This also increases the quality of the answers, because the fresh impressions are directly converted into feedback.

In addition, you will probably receive feedback on your seminar from every participant.

Option 4: During and after the seminar

When you use online seminar surveys with a survey tool like easyfeedback, you have a flexible tool handy to collect feedback from your seminar participants multiple times at any given time.

This way you can also combine the gathering of feedback. Topic-relevant feedback directly during the seminar, and general feedback after the seminar.

Therefore, we recommend that you conduct several short seminar surveys during the seminar, and that you supplement these with a longer survey a few days later.

Compare the results afterwards. You will find that this method gives you more valuable information from the feedback.

How should the content of a seminar survey be structured?

Basically, you should always structure your seminar survey according to the concept “Introduction – main part – conclusion”.

In the introduction you have to win the trust and goodwill of your survey participants in order to get open and honest answers to the questions asked. Therefore, please indicate the purpose of the survey, including whether the answers are anonymous or personalized and what influence the feedback will have on the seminar in the future.

You should also provide your business contact information with e-mail address and, if applicable, telephone number for the survey participants so that they can contact you.

As a small tip: 
brevity is the spice of life - keep your request brief and look forward to the feedback.

After the introduction, the main part of the seminar survey follows. This can be designed individually and freely by you. If you use many questions for the seminar evaluation, you should divide them into topic blocks. This gives you and the seminar evaluators a better overview.

Ask questions with simple wording, and do not formulate a double question in one question. These are difficult or impossible to answer.

At this point we give you a selection of possible questions for your seminar survey:

Topic block 1: Organization & general conditions

• Did you find the seminar room pleasant?

• Was there enough chairs and tables?

• Was there enough computer available?

• Did you like the catering?

• Were all necessary working documents provided?

Topic block 2: Structure of the seminar

• Was the goal of the seminar well communicated?

• Was the structure and the course of the seminar able to achieve the goal?

• Did the participants have enough breaks between the individual topics?

• Did the course of the seminar offer a variety of topics?

• Did the seminar have enough discussion rounds to promote learning?

Topic block 3: Content of the seminar

• Did the content have a clear reference to the goal of the seminar?

• Could the individual topics be sufficiently covered in the given times?

• Did the seminar provide enough practical examples?

• Did the visualizations help you to better understand the respective content?

• Was your expectation fully met?

Topic block 4: Evaluation of the speaker

• Did the speaker appear friendly and courteous?

• Did the speaker respond to the participants personally?

• Has the speaker been able to convey the contents competently and easily?

• Could the speaker answer the questions sufficiently?

Topic block 5: Practical implementation

• Are the contents I have learned important and useful for me?

• Were you already able to implement the acquired contents well?

• Have you set concrete goals for the implementation of the contents?

• Are there enough examples of use available in the materials?

Topic block 6: Suggestions for improvement, praise & criticism

• What do you think could be improved about the seminar?

• What did you miss?

• What did you particularly like? 

• What did you not like? 

Topic block 7: Personal questions

• What gender are you?

• What is your current profession?

• What motivated you to attend the seminar?

• How likely is it that you would recommend the seminar to a friend or someone you know?

The following acknowledgement forms the conclusion of the seminar questionnaire.

If you decide to use several feedback questionnaires for the evaluation of the seminar, it is best to ask during the event only for the quality of the respective program item.

At the end or a few days later you can ask the participants again for their opinion regarding organization and improvement wishes.