Boots UK is a member of Alliance Boots, which has around 2,600 stores and approximately 70,000 employees. With a history stretching back over 160 years, Boots UK is a familiar sight on Britain's high streets, providing pharmacy, healthcare, personal care, and cosmetic products, with most stores selling over-the-counter medicines.

Traditional training methods can present many challenges in the retail environment, as it is difficult to take individuals working in customer-facing roles out of the store or to train large groups. In response to these challenges, Boots UK implemented an eLearning platform comprising a Learning Management System that enables effective and efficient training to be delivered to a large population, while reducing time spent away from the customer.

Questionmark™ Perception™, part of the eLearning solution provided by e2Train, is used to help support Boots UK's evaluation methodology (The Kirkpatrick Model), providing instant feedback on the effectiveness of the training interventions and making it possible to test learners' understanding where practical. The company has more than fifty perception tests on their Learning Management System, which are mostly used for compliance training. For example, staff members must pass tests to undertake certain tasks, which is particularly relevant to pharmacy-related work.

PCs are provided in each store so that employees can complete their training and assessments. Where practical for the learner, both face-to-face and eLearning modules are evaluated online with Level 1 evaluation forms after each training intervention. These evaluations are used to provide instant feedback to the Learning and Development team, who analyse the feedback to determine how effective the training is and whether adjustments need to be made to improve the learning experience.

Questionmark assessments are also used in many cases to test learners' understanding of the training interventions. Subject-matter experts who create training content can also submit assessment questions to the eLearning team, who then create assessments within Questionmark Perception that can be delivered alongside the training material. Assessments are delivered to staff in-store, enabling them to take the assessments at a convenient place and time. Completion rates are encouraging, with staff members finding the tests easy to navigate.

Moving to online assessments provided three distinct advantages for the Learning and Development team at Boots UK. First, they are confident that the data will always be recorded and available to them when they need to do further analysis on the outcomes of their learning interventions. Second, they have the ability to provide instant feedback that is quickly looped into the training process to ensure that learning programs are reaching maximum effectiveness. And third, last-minute changes can be made quickly and easily, even after assessments have gone live.