Online Training Needs Assessments: How to Measure Learning Performance Effortlessly

For online training instructors, creating meaningful performance assessments for online training is a critical issue.

Nowadays, most online training instructors like to evaluate what learners learnt during the learning process through traditional summative evaluation. However, this assessment approach needs to be changed, as it only considers final learning outcomes without considering the learning process of learners. Actually, learning performance can be tracked by related online assessments in the process of online training. With meaningful and periodical performance assessments, instructors would easily and efficiently measure all performances and provide valuable feedback to learners in training progress.

How to Conduct Assessments in Online Training?

1. Schedule all assessments, not just at the end
Regarding the flexibility of online assessments, instructors need to know the overall schedule of the training to grade whole learning process. With different levels, make exact schedule of assessments to examine all learners' performances. The good point is, instructors can benefit from those results of assessments as feedback, and add improvements in the learning courses of next level. For online training, the scheduled assessments could be easier to be integrated into original learning timeline. Assessments and courses can be based on feedbacks from previous assessments to engage learners with interactions. At the end, assessment in traditional way also makes sense with maximum efforts. In scheduled training, performance assessments are really helpful to control entire learning process.

2. Customize assessment creation, with right tools
To author online assessments with specified requirements, instructors will create and implement quizzes to test undergoing training. Types of quizzes may differ and may feature formats ranging from multiple choice answers, plain typed text responses and true/false and yes/no questions. Instructors should carefully select the assessment authoring tools, according to the usages. Creating quizzes as performance assessments in online training has two categories of tools: desktop applications, or Web applications. Desktop apps such as Wondershare QuizCreator, or Web apps such as Quia Web have similar features to customize assessment creation, but the online usages. Desktop apps usually have plentiful contents and take Flash technology to Web compliance; while Web apps offer easy-to-use quizzes creation online directly but exact enhancements.

3. Track and evaluate results, under management
As feedback on performance is a critical part of a learning environment, online training instructors really need to analyze all results of performance assessments.

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