Pathways offers a wide arrange of different training products that could be beneficial to your company in many ways. With the number of products that we offer, it may seem overwhelming and hard to choose which product may be the best fit for your needs. This blog will help narrow down which product may be the best for you and your training needs. eLearning and mLearning eLearning and mLearning modules are one of our most popular products that we produce at Pathways. Our eLear

Whenever “education” and “learning” are mentioned, most people immediately associate those words with children and youths. Adult learning is its own category, but there is more work in getting adults to learn, and to be invested in learning. It’s not that the old dog can’t learn new tricks, you just have to teach them differently. Attributes of adult learners include: 1. Self direction Adults like to maintain control over their decisions, so giving adult learners the options

eLearning is trending everywhere, universities, businesses, corporations, etc. Irrespective of their scale, they are constantly implementing an eLearning model to their business. They are all starting to realize how impactful and rewarding it can really be. It helps them become better and stand out from the competition, simply because it provides their people with outstanding opportunities to learn and improve their skills. As people learn and grow, they feel more satisfied w

An organization implements eLearning for their audience which may be internal (employees and contractors) and/or external audience (customers and business associates). To make a long-lasting impression on these groups, it is important that the look and feel of all digital and print material is consistent, including eLearning modules. Up to what extent can you really embed the corporate style guide of colors, fonts and aesthetic design in eLearning? Since eLearning became a co

When creating elearning training for a new process, for new hires, or inform your employees on policies and procedures, one of the challenges is to make sure that the information that needs to be conveyed is correct and consistent. Potential elearning content may come from several different sources, from people and/or documentation. The most valuable source of information on the content you want to produce is a Subject Matter Expert, or SME. A coordinated team of instructiona

Regardless of what your role within an organization is, we all have a responsibility to protect our customers’ privacy. The above statement may seem an odd way to open a blog, but I wanted to be sure the objective of this discussion is stated as clearly as possible, as I have discovered over my 25 years in training, that not everyone shares that same opinion. At Pathways Training and eLearning, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of client’s asking for customized

Last week I introduced the first of a three-part discussion on complaint management, a topic that is covered in great detail through eLearning and instructor led programs we have developed and offer our customers. As mentioned last week, the focus of the training provides the learner coaching tips on how to manage difficult situations in the workplace. A customer will lodge a complaint when their expectations have not been met. As mentioned previously, these complaints may

I have mentioned on a few occasions that one of my duties at Pathways Training & eLearning is facilitating courses for our luxury automotive clients. Today I was co-facilitating a Brand Awareness course and had an interesting conversation with my co-facilitator at lunch. The focus of the conversation was around facilitation techniques which led to being asked what strategies I use to engage and excite the students, specifically at the beginning of a program. To answer this

Last week I discussed one of the great instructor led programs we offer here at Pathways Training & eLearning, and this week I was intending to provide few details of some of the popular eLearning courses we offer. However, first I thought perhaps I could provide a more detailed explanation or definition for eLearning to ensure we all share the same understanding. Often when completing a needs analysis for a development project I am asked to include elements of eLearning. W

This week the Pathways team will be running an all-day workshop for one of our luxury automotive clients. While the objective for the workshop is essentially to allow groups within their organization to attain greater insight as to what their peers are doing, and as well to ascertain how they can work together in a more cohesive manner…much of the discussions will be focused on communication excellence for leaders. In thinking about the discussions we are preparing to have w

These past few months I have spent most of my time split between developing eLearning storyboards and leading classroom training, both activities of which I enjoy very much. I mention this as my work efforts being divided between two of the most common elements of training is an interesting segue in to a question I was asked recently while working with a client on a storyboard built around privacy awareness, and that is… “How does one determine when to use eLearning versu

As I have stated on numerous occasions, one of the more common topics we at Pathways Training & eLearning are asked to train (through interactive eLearning modules) is Social Media. I have written in the past about the benefits, advantages and potential dangers of using Social Media, so this week I would like to keep things a bit lighter, and offer these fun and interesting facts, thanks to our friends at Statistics Canada. As I am sure we would all agree, one of the greate

One of the most common topics we are asked to address in training is Social Media awareness, which on the service seems reasonably straight forward, however as many of our clients have discovered…not all of their employees share this same understanding. By that I mean that while most of us are aware of the plentiful social media channels available to us to share our opinions, thoughts and life experiences, many still do not realize the impact, both good and bad, Social Media

Graphics are an essential part of eLearning. Graphics help us recognize and recollect eLearning content more effectively, as well as retain interest when the graphics are appealing and well composed. However, just because graphics are important doesn’t mean they can be used in every case. It is just as important to make sure that the graphics support the content in a meaningful way, and aren’t put in just to fill space. If you remove the text from a page with graphics on it,

Over these past few months Pathways Training and eLearning has been asked by several of our clients, to develop eLearning modules on the topic of social media awareness and usage. Considering the frequency of these recent eLearning requests, and as well the acknowledgement that social media is by no means a new phenomenon, this leads me to believe that more and more organizations have probably already realized the potential benefits of utilizing social media, and are onl

The development of learning objectives is a very important part of developing your elearning. A good learning objective enables trainers to know what they will teach, learners to know what they will learn, and organizations to know what will be achieved with the elearning. Learning objectives are statements that describe specific and measurable things that the learner is expected to be able to know, understand or do when they have completed an elearning course, which also ind

This past week I facilitated a project management program for a group of 10 professionals from a wide variety of organisations. The focus of the course was applied project management skills for professional planners, however some of the discussion in the morning was focused on their (the participants) experiences in previous classes; specifically, those classes that did not do a thorough job in covering the stated objectives of the course due to what they perceived as poor f

Many successful elearning courses use different types of media (ie: text, images, sound, animated and live video) simultaneously to generate interest and direct the learner’s attention around the content. However, using several forms of media together can just as easily create problems that counteract learner comprehension and make your eLearning content more difficult to absorb. Two cognitive science principles that can help you understand when different types of media may c

In the world of training development this happens all too often. A customer has created materials that they feel are well written, clearly stated and effectively meets the learning objectives, but when these are provided to an eLearning vendor so that the words can be turned in to eLearning training, the meaning gets lost in translation to the point the customer is dissatisfied with the end result and feel their work and time have been wasted. The reason’s as to the cause

Writing and creating effective tests for understanding is a crucial component of developing a good eLearning program, and sadly however something that is often overlooked. Think about it for a moment…. how many times have you ever reviewed an eLearning course by skimming through the material, not really reading all of the content, muting the audio portions at times and despite all that, still aced the quiz at the end? Assuming most of us do not possess an eidetic memory or