patrick mcdonald

This author has written 55 articles

Assessments: When Scoring Is Boring

Do you hate tests? Do you find yourself looking to see what you scored, perhaps relieved that you got most of the answers right? Here’s the thing. Scoring is boring! Especially when it comes to your learning objectives. How can it be okay to only know 80% of your learning objectives if ALL of them are, you know, the actual LEARNING OBJECTIVES! Why do we assess learners in the first place? Well, an assessment determines if students have gained sufficient knowledge or have become proficient in a skill. (Those pesky learning objectives!) It also provides instructors with the chance to…

Read More

How to Write Measurable Learning Objectives that Get Results

Before creating your next eLearning course, ask yourself this question: What do you want your learners to do after completing your course? Ideally, your course will equip your learners with new knowledge and skills so that they will be able to perform new tasks, or perform old tasks with better accuracy or improved results. All too often we fixate on what learners need to understand, and we lose sight of what we actually need them to be able to do after completing the course. While understanding is a necessary part of the educational process, it’s not enough. We can’t stop…

Read More

How to Gauge When Building Online Courses is The Best Option

Building online courses has never been easier, thanks to rapid development authoring tools. With WYSIWYG editors and no knowledge of coding required, today’s authoring tools allow you to upload pre-existing content (such as PowerPoint decks), create new templates from scratch if you wish, or use provided templates which are easily customizable to your content needs. As schools and businesses adjusted their operations to account for the COVID-19 global pandemic, many people with no prior instructional design experience found themselves being asked to either purchase or create online courses. There are several factors to consider when faced with the decision of…

Read More

Choosing an LMS: How to Determine the Best Fit for You

“Our learning management system (LMS) is just what you need to work smarter – not harder.”  - Some random person at a learning conference event Have you heard this one before? Or maybe some other version of this statement? While an LMS will help you work smarter in many ways, you should spend some time up front really diagnosing what you need before you make a decision and invest. Review and understand what is really happening with your learning system today. This first step is to conduct a full and complete analysis of your current learning system.  To really be…

Read More

How to Choose an LMS for Training in the Grocery Industry

Proper training is a critical component of the grocery industry. Grocers are held to a high standard of compliance with regulatory requirements, and high turnover in grocery stores makes training employees and maintaining compliance difficult to navigate. As an essential business, it is critical that grocers train and track the completion of compliance training for each employee. Historically, grocers deliver compliance training on topics like food handling, liquor sales, and lottery, through face-to-face meetings and verbal affirmations. Managers spend much of their time training employees. Training grocery teams in this way became the standard expectation across the grocery industry. Since…

Read More
Back To Top