FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising prepares students for careers in the fashion, graphics, interior design and entertainment industries. The institute, which has campuses in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco, offers both on-campus and online courses to its 6,000 full-time students. Three hundred students are usually enrolled in FIDM's two dozen online courses.

The institute formerly ran assessments within its LMS, but after troubleshooting issues with students that could not access the built-in assessment tool, FIDM's eLearning team developed some Flash-based testing applets. These proved difficult to update, and instructors were not able to use them for test authoring. The eLearning team needed an assessment management system that could capture necessary data from learners and store it for more than one semester at a time, build legible and usable reports, and allow instructors to create their own content. After running some pilot assessments in 2005, the team selected Questionmark Perception.

FIDM uses assessments in online classes to measure students' knowledge and to determine whether course content meets accreditation objectives and prescribed student learning outcomes.
Perception surveys are also used for non-graded course activities and anonymous course and instructor evaluations. Online students take their exams from home, accessing Perception through the learning management system. Although initially cautious about using Questionmark Perception, they quickly mastered its use with help from e-learning staff.

The eLearning team helps author questions requiring special questions such as drag and drop questions or questions that require custom meta-data or reporting. The team also sets the schedules and requirements for exams, coordinating delivery through the institute's learning management system. The team utilizes Windows Authoring most of the time, but handles quick edits with BBA.

Perception's reporting features allow instructors to quickly get a snapshot of student performance. They also provide data that instructors use to make proactive changes in their course content teaching. Reports also help demonstrate the validity of online course content to administrators.

Future Plans
FIDM plans to fully integrate its student portal with its new Sakai LMS to enable single sign-on for course-related activities. Once the portal and LMS are integrated, they will be linked with Questionmark Perception to create seamless eLearning and assessment. The institute also plans to utilize Perception's browser check feature, thus enabling students to troubleshoot their own computer configuration more successfully.