​As Head of Teaching at Chisholm Online​, Clare Nelson knows it's vital that students find their learning tools engaging and interactive.  She says, "Creating our learning resources here at Chisholm Online is a lengthy but rewarding process. A team of writers, subject matter experts, assessment specialists and instructional designers, all work together to make the final product you see in Moodle". But where do they start?

Firstly, the qualification requirements are mapped out giving the team an overview of what needs to be covered. The subject experts and writers then work in parallel with the assessment specialists to write the content ensuring it aligns closely with the assessment. As Clare says, "The online environment gives us so much more scope for variety compared to print resources as we include relevant websites, videos, podcasts and interactive tasks so the students can explore what information and support is available online".  This enables students to continue their learning and update their industry knowledge long after they have graduated.

Then it's over to the instructional designers who give the content a multimedia treatment to bundle together text, video, and audio files. It's at this stage that interactive tasks are created so students can check their understanding before having to do the assessments. The instructional designers add in colours and imagery to make the content engaging and exciting but also complementary of the concepts in the course.   

What about the assessments? Well, depending on the qualification, some are project based and some have to be completed in the workplace.  What happens when we have an assessment that falls outside of those categories? According to Clare, "That's when the fun starts!"  "We make animations with characters in real-life scenarios, giving the student questions throughout. The scenario enfolds according to the student's answers". A sound booth is then used to add voices to the characters in the animations. These assessments are realistic, fun to do and are very popular with the students.

As Chisholm Online student Casey says, "The content is different and never boring. Some of the slides are spoken to you and the ones that aren’t are fun! There are small quizzes and tests as well as graphs and games. It’s really well developed!"​

If online learning sounds like it might work for you, visit Chisholm Online for a full list of our courses. Our next enrolment deadline is October 7.​