Parallel parking for your eLearning course

The irony is that we, as eLearning designers and developers, are often guilty of doing just that. We rely on written tests to tell us if learners know how to do something, but we stop short of asking them to demonstrate that they can do what they've learned. We pride ourselves in building robust and instructionally sound courses. We provide learners with media-rich instruction, diverse examples, interactive practice activities, and a host of other Instructional System Design (ISD) bells and whistles. However, when it comes to measuring whether or not a learner has mastered the objectives of a course, we often fall short. We often rely on multiple choice tests or true and false items. Even worse, sometimes we don't bother testing our learners at all.

Explore the assessment samples in Figures 1 through 3. Figure 1 illustrates a simple quiz used to test learners about the facts about global warming. Figure 2 shows a common approach to assess software procedures, in this case, how to set margins in Microsoft Word®. Figure 3 is a portion of a multiple choice test administered to hotel front desk representatives dealing with customer conflicts.

Figure 1. Before: Sample of a test on global warming.

• Watch the demo: Sample of a test on global warming

Figure 2. Before: Sample of a test on setting margins in Microsoft Word.

• Watch the demo: Sample of a test on setting margins in Microsoft Word

Figure 3. Before: Sample of a test in handling a customer conflict.

• Watch the demo: Sample of a test on setting margins in Microsoft Word

Do any of these examples seem familiar to you? Have you ever taken a course that included test items like these? Have you ever created one yourself? It's second nature for us to rely on these types of tests. We're familiar with multiple choice items. We grew up on true and false tests in school. They're comfortable and seemingly easy.

Page 2 of 4

Previous Page

Next Page