Our Portfolio
Case Studies
BC Assessment
The Client
BC Assessment develops and maintains real property assessments throughout British Columbia, in addition to providing real property information. The Crown Corporation completes property assessments for over 2 million properties every year. Its mission is to create uniform assessments and trusted property information.
Key Project Features
The Need for Change
BC Assessment wanted to prepare a variety of employee groups to use critical thinking skills in an increasingly digitally based work environment.
It asked PathWise to create an eLearning course with the goal of teaching employees to recognize weak or illogical arguments, particularly online, and to apply practical solutions for diplomatically challenging these arguments.
The Path for Change
After analysis and consultation, BC Assessment and PathWise decided on the following strategies:
- Content would focus on a few key critical thinking concepts with particular relevance to online communication, with each concept explored in a separate micro-learning module.
- A short custom video would begin each module to introduce the concept.
- Each module would include a variety of custom activities and interactions, with custom illustrations and graphics, to provide learners the opportunity to explore and practice what they’d learned about the concepts in relevant, real-world settings.
The Approach
PathWise created 6 eLearning modules, of roughly 15 minutes each, using Articulate 360.
Interactivity
PathWise designed a series of interactive activities to allow learners to apply and practice what they’d learned about critical thinking in “real-world” settings, like offices, online discussion forums, and social media. These interactions include the following:
- Drag-and-drop activities and labelled graphics to increase learner engagement, retention, and understanding
- Quizzes for learners to test their retention and understanding and directly apply what they’ve learned
- Downloadable PDF checklists with key concepts as take-aways from each module
Audio/Visual
PathWise created six narrated, animated videos to explain critical thinking in a way that is lively, engaging, and easy to understand. The videos use online and business interactions to illustrate complex philosophical concepts and bring the abstract into the learners’ worlds.
Voice narration is used throughout the course, as well, with closed captioning included for all narration to ensure accessibility for those who are hearing impaired.
Scenarios
To engage learners in “real-world” and relevant situations and optimize learning, many of the activities and quizzes involve named characters having in-person, email, and social media or other online interactions. Learners are asked to evaluate these interactions, identify logical problems, or decide what a character should or should not do.
Using scenarios and storytelling with characters helps learners engage with the material in a personal and memorable way.
Results
The course is now in use at BC Assessment. Not only has it enhanced employees’ understanding of critical thinking in digital environments, it has also given them the practical skills to apply critical thinking during discussion.
