I have a problem with my son…he is bored. He has gone from playing competitive soccer 7 days a week and to having school 5 days a week, to doing almost nothing. Although school technically runs until the end of June, given the pandemic (and the labour strike before that), he has had almost no quality schooling this year. His teachers are now putting some course work on Google Classroom (worksheets that are supposed to be filled-in), but there is little accountability for the

More often than not, I have had the opportunity to program in Articulate Storyline, different kind of activities that help the learners assess their knowledge of the topic at any point throughout the eLearning module. One of those activities, that I actually find very common in online training, is the matching activity, where you need to pair usually a definition with the correct term, or to give you a more specific example, the name of a car component with the correct pictur

Pathways Training and eLearning recently developed some highly effective gamified simulations for a major Canadian company, with locations around the world. These new hire simulations, were designed to help teach new hire employees how to use a highly complex online system, to serve clients. While there are projects that use simulations and projects that use gamification, the use of both these methods together is not common. The lack of prevalence of research on these two lea

Traditional eLearning involves the learner taking a digital course online, typically this would involve using text, audio, video and animations to teach the learner about a specific topic. This may be fine but this method has been done for a number of years now. As eLearning is focused around technology it is important that you innovate your digital training as learners expectations changes, one way you can do this is through learning games. Not be confused with gamification

eLearning is a constantly evolving form of learning due to its focus on leveraging the latest technologies to deliver digital training. Technology changes very rapidly and as a result eLearning is constantly changing, by leveraging new tools, techniques and methods digital training and eLarning can be delivered in new ways that is beneficial for both the learner and the training provider. To make sure your training is up-to-date and meets learners expectations below are 3 tre

When developing and updating eLearning it will go through what is know as review cycles, a review cycle is a cycle in which an eLearning course goes from the developer to the client for review, the client then reviews the eLearning and records the updates they want the developer to make in the form of review comments, this is then sent to the developer who makes the updates. This method of using review cycles is an effective way to update your eLearning and digital training,

eLearning can be a useful and powerful tool to use as part of your learning strategy, it allows you to create interactive digital courses that can be accessed by multiple learners anytime and from a variety of devices. It can be easy to design and develop your training, push it out then expect learners to take it, however this is not always the case. Once you have finished developing your training it is important to incentivise and engage your learners on an on-going basis to

Tablets are now one of the main portable devices that people use in their day to day lives. Just like a phone, tablets bring the advantage of portability and flexibility as you can access the internet and your apps from anywhere with an internet connection. As a result of this there is a good chance your learners will also want to take eLearning and digital training on their tablet as well. The ability to take eLearning while on the subway or at home in their living room is a

A Learning Management System or LMS is the backbone for hosting and deploying your eLearning. A LMS is a management system that lets you up upload, maintain and administer eLearning courses, once uploaded learners are then able to launch and take eLearning from a variety of devices, providing they have a network connection. At the moment using an LMS is a common practice in the eLearning industry, however Cloud-Based Learning Management Systems is a technology that might chan

Virtual Reality or VR is the use of computer technology to generate an immersive and interactive environment for the user. By using a VR headset that users are placed in a simulated environment that they can then interact with and have experiences which mimic real life. VR is a technology that has continued to grow in popularity while at the same time becoming more affordable, but how can this be used to improve your digital training and deliver a better learning experience?

The user interface (UI) is one of the most important parts of your eLearning, it determines what is on-screen, how content is laid out and how your user will interact with your digital training. There are a number of UI trends you can implement to improve the look and feel of your eLearning, below are some you should consider when designing your next course. 1. Overlapping Effect Overlapping fonts, colors and images can be an effective way to make things stand out and give yo

When it comes to eLearning learner expectations are higher than they use to be, not only do learners expect to take training on their PC but also on the go using their smartphones, tablets and laptops. As a result of this when designing eLearning and digital training it is important you cater for these needs. For example when a learner takes eLearning on a smartphone it is a very different experience to when they take it on a computer, some of these differences include how th

UX or user experience is the experience a user has when using a system, for websites it is how users interact with the web pages e.g are they able to find the information they need, are they able to easily navigate around and were they able to do what they set out to accomplish. In regards to eLearning this is not too different, when a learner takes a course the UX design will determine how the learner progresses through a course, how they will receive new information and if

The concept of responsive learning is that eLearning and web-based training should operate and act similarly regardless of which device it is being accessed on. Having content that can adapt and look good on a range of devices is becoming more important as learners are increase accessing training on the go. Below are four things to consider when developing responsive eLearning: 1. Multi-Platform Learners expect to take eLearning on a number of devices including laptops, table

It’s been an exciting few weeks at Pathways. Not only did we get quoted in the news yet again check out the recent article on our virtual reality eLearning work https://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/2579/devlearn-links-teams-exploring-360-degree-video-in-elearning This article was written by Learning Solutions Magazine which is a leading North American publication for eLearning professionals and enthusiasts. In the last few weeks, we also partnered with Canadian Ma

If you’re designing graphics for your elearning that require some exciting text, here are some Illustrator basics to get you started! The Type Tool In the default Illustrator Toolbar, the Type tool is the “T” icon. Your font, colour, size, line spacing and kerning can be edited from the Character menu or the top toolbar. Once you have the Type tool selected, you can create Point Type by clicking on a place in the document where you want the text to go, or an Area Type box by

The new year came with a wave of very low temperatures here in Canada, but also brought a wave of very interesting and challenging requests from our clients. One of them, specifically, requested a modification to an eLearning course, that consisted in tracking some values out of it, but without hosting it in a LMS, meaning that they wanted to distribute the course as a web page (kind of). So, without an LMS, how do you track values, for example, when a learner answers a speci

This week I have been speaking at a conference that Pathways Training and eLearning was asked to be a part of and was asked an interesting question… ” How do you make the decision to use eLearning or instructor led training when you can develop only one of those choices"? Making the determination between using eLearning or instructor led training is simple, and often done for you before development starts. For example, consider geographic location of the intended audience.

Lately, I have been working in Adobe Captivate to create / modify eLearning courses for different clients and even though I started my journey with this software, I stopped using due to the high demand of eLearning modules produced in Articulate Storyline. I won’t get into any comparisons right now, since I have done it in previous posts, and I want to focus my effort for this blog post on a very important (in my opinion) feature in Adobe Captivate: Timing. When you create a

Last week I started a conversation around a training program I regularly facilitate titled “Managing People and Yourself”. At Pathways Training and eLearning,, we offer a full suite of leadership training programs through a variety of training opportunities including in class training, one on one coaching and mentoring, video blogs and of course through interactive eLearning training. This course in particular is intended for senior leaders and managers within an organizat