Beyond the Quiz: Redefining Competence in eLearning

Denice Schroeder, Sr. Director of Experiential Learning, Bryan University

Denice Schroeder, Sr. Director of Experiential Learning, Bryan University

Denice Schroeder brings over 20 years of experience in instructional design, learning strategy and innovation. As the lead architect of corporate, higher education and skilled-trades learning models at Bryan University, she advances performance-based training that integrates emerging technologies and real-world skill application. She is committed to creating learning experiences that prepare graduates and trainees to step into the workplace ready to perform from day one.

For years, online learning has been flooded with quick-hit programs built around information dumps and multiple-choice quizzes. A learner watches a video, answers a series of recall questions, and walks away with a “certificate”, sometimes even a credential that signals supposed readiness for a highly skilled job.

Yet many of these roles, IT and cybersecurity support, project management, customer service, medical assisting and paralegal work require hands-on competence that cannot be meaningfully measured by correctly identifying an answer on a screen. The result is a workforce full of people who have invested in training or degrees, earned the credentials and still arrive on the job unable to perform the tasks the credential implied they were prepared for.

This gap is even more visible in higher education programs that have migrated fully or partially online. Fields like Health Information Management, Exercise Science, Criminal Justice and Paralegal Studies include skills that are inherently applied: navigating systems, analyzing real scenarios, demonstrating physical technique or resolving complex human interactions. Yet in many online programs, these skills are evaluated through theoretical assessments alone. Learners often discover too late that knowing about a skill is not the same as being able to do it. And employers feel that gap every day.

"Denice Schroeder brings over 20 years of experience in instructional design, learning strategy and innovation. "

I’ve spent more than 20 years designing learning experiences for fields where competence must be demonstrated not assumed. Across those years, I’ve watched thousands of learners enter programs believing a certificate or degree would guarantee employability. But too often, their courses measured knowledge, not ability. They passed quizzes, wrote essays, memorized terminology and still struggled to bridge the space between the learning environment and the demands of the workplace.

Programs like Medical Assisting illustrate this gap clearly. Students might be taught to explain procedures such as venipuncture, yet are never asked to prepare equipment, position a patient, or respond to a real-time complication. Their coursework taught them the “what,” but not the “how.”

This gap is not unique to healthcare. It appears in countless fields: learners who can describe an exercise movement but cannot safely demonstrate it; learners who can explain coding theory but cannot navigate an EHR, learners who can define legal vocabulary but cannot prepare a client file. Repeatedly, I see knowledge-based assessments being used to validate competencies that are fundamentally performance-based, leaving learners unprepared for the realities of the workplace. These observations shaped my belief that performance-based learning is not simply an instructional choice but it is an ethical responsibility. If a program claims to prepare someone for a job, then its assessments must mirror the tasks, decisions and interactions that job demands.

In my current role, we’ve taken that responsibility seriously. In medical assisting and phlebotomy coursework, for example, students don’t just learn communication strategies, they practice them by responding to recorded patient prompts that simulate real interactions. They don’t just memorize blood draw procedures they use at-home venipuncture kits on practice arms, record themselves performing the full sequence and receive targeted, actionable feedback from trained evaluators.

These recordings and performance artifacts become more than assignments, they form portfolios students can take to employers as evidence of real ability. That shift from “I passed a quiz” to “Here is what I can do” has transformed learner confidence, persistence and workplace readiness.

And the impact is not limited to healthcare. I’ve seen similar results when learners design fitness assessments rather than simply read about them, conduct mock client interviews instead of analyzing case studies or produce real work samples rather than select definitions on a test. When learners are invited to perform, they begin to see themselves as capable. When they receive feedback grounded in authentic tasks, they grow. When they practice repeatedly, they become ready.

We can and must expect more from online learning than content delivery and knowledge recall. Graduates should not be left to discover their missing skills only after stepping into a job. Education should be the place where learners safely practice, make mistakes, receive coaching and build the competence their future roles demand.

Our measure of success cannot be how many students complete a course or earn a credential. It must be how many can confidently step into their chosen field, contribute meaningfully and sustain that contribution. Performance-based learning is not just better pedagogy, it is a commitment to our learners, our industries and the communities that rely on both.

If we want graduates who can hit the ground running, we must stop teaching them to run on paper. We must let them run, stumble, recover and master the movement long before they reach the workplace. That is the path to genuine readiness and to a future in which education closes gaps rather than widens them.