Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

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Custom Design & Delivery

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Predictive Evaluation

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Enterprise Learning Strategy

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Dave Basarab Consulting has elevated the training experience, offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach that includes training strategy, instructional design, development, delivery , post program training transfer, and evaluation (via the unique Predictive Evaluation methodology). Virtual Chief Architect Dave Basarab has combined all of these individual training elements with his user-friendly, comprehensive Learning to Performance approach, which significantly increases companies' training ROI.

Why we are different

Innovation: Our primary focus is creating learning programs using a Learning to Performance approach.
Expertise: Dave offers the depth and breadth of his experience, including working internally at prestigious companies (Motorola, Ingersoll Rand and Pitney Bowes) as well as his knowledge and expertise as a highly-respected, sought-after consultant.
Partnership: Basarab collaborates with companies, serving as their own Chief Learning Officer whenever they need to plan, strategize, or implement training initiatives.

Training Services

Enterprise Learning Strategy

Enterprise Learning Strategy

At Dave Basarab Consulting, we're experts in creating Enterprise Learning Plans. We work with you to develop your company's learning strategy and direction.

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom training is an effective way of developing the capability required to execute your strategy. We are a custom design house that creates programs specific to your business.

Learning Burst Development

Learning Burst Development

We can create and deliver your courses via our unique Learning Burst Method - keeping your employees at their jobs while receiving world-class training.

Predictive Evaluation

Predictive Evaluation

We predict the ROI for your courses and establish success gates. We then evaluate the course against the success gates to show value realized and continually improve results.

Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Turn-key virtual custom leadership development program that combines world-class leadership speakers/educators with post-event personalized coaching to provide you with a cadre of highly skilled leaders.

Predictive Evaluation

Instructional design quality and its impact on learner engagement

Corporate learning teams across Australia are sitting on a stubborn puzzle: budgets keep climbing while completion rates and learner satisfaction scores stay flat. The missing piece usually sits upstream of the LMS and the facilitator roster. It lives in the quality of the instructional design itself.

When instructional design treats learners as time-poor professionals with real jobs, engagement scores shift in measurable ways. Teams that invest in structured analysis, scenario-based practice and clear learning objectives consistently see higher participation in follow-up modules. The pattern shows up in mining towns near Pilbara, in hospital networks across Victoria, and in the contact centres of Brisbane.

Why engagement scores matter in corporate learning

Engagement scores capture more than whether someone clicked "next." They reflect attention, relevance and intent to apply new skills back on the job. A learner who scores a module as highly engaging is far more likely to retain content past the post-test.

For Australian organisations, engagement metrics also tie directly to compliance and funding reporting. Registered training organisations answer to ASQA, while corporates justify learning spend to executive committees who want proof of behavioural change. Engagement scores offer an early indicator of whether a program will land.

Hallmarks of quality instructional design

Quality design starts with a sharp needs analysis. Designers who pressure-test the performance gap before writing a single learning objective tend to build shorter, sharper programs. They cut content that does not serve the job.

Other hallmarks include chunking content into manageable segments, weaving in scenario-based decision points, and building knowledge checks that mimic real workplace dilemmas. Adult learning principles matter here. Experienced workers in roles like project coordination or shift supervision want to see the "why" before the "how." A solid design respects that.

How design quality translates to engagement

Well-built modules reduce cognitive load. Learners in fast-paced environments such as Sydney trading floors or Perth operations centres rarely have the mental bandwidth for dense text walls. When design trims the noise, attention stretches further.

Interactive elements pull their weight too. Drag-and-drop exercises, branching scenarios and short video demonstrations all lift engagement scores compared to static slides. The lift is usually visible within the first two minutes of a module, which is why the opening hook matters so much.

The Australian context for learning engagement

Australian workplaces carry their own cultural texture. The fair go ethos means learners expect equal treatment and practical content. Tall poppy syndrome can make over-the-top gamification feel cringe, so design tone matters.

Vocabulary lands differently too. A facilitator who uses "arvo" in a scenario feels authentic in Melbourne, but corporate audiences often prefer a balanced register that mirrors the workplace. Programs that get this balance right see stronger feedback in surveys.

Industries under skills pressure — such as aged care across regional Queensland or rail in Western Australia — depend on engaged learners to fill capability gaps. When instructional design respects the reality of shift work and family commitments, completion rates climb. Organisations building structured learning governance often start by revisiting how design decisions get made at the leadership level, and a useful primer sits at this learning governance framework overview.

Predictive evaluation as a quality check

Forecasting how a program will land before launch changes the conversation entirely. Predictive Evaluation, the methodology championed by Dave Basarab Consulting, models adoption, impact and ROI against the design itself.

Teams that run predictive checks catch weak spots in scenarios and assessments while there is still time to revise. The result is a tighter loop between design intent and learner behaviour.

Practical levers that lift engagement

Designers who want better scores often start by tightening a few core elements:

Map every module back to a single, observable behaviour the learner must perform on the job.
Replace generic scenarios with ones drawn from the learner's actual industry, tooling and constraints.
Limit each module to a single concept and close with a decision point that mirrors real choices.
Use voice-over audio recorded at conversational pace, not rushed narration.
Schedule short refreshers at 30 and 60 days to fight the forgetting curve.

Equally useful is a checklist for spotting tired design:

Slides that read like a manual instead of teaching a skill.
Assessments that test recall of trivia rather than applied judgement.
No opportunity for the learner to practise before being assessed.
Content that ignores mobile learners who tap in from a phone on the train.

Engagement drivers across design approaches

Different design approaches move the engagement needle in different ways. The comparison below shows how common methods stack up.

Design approach	Typical engagement lift	Best suited for
Pure e-learning (slides + quiz)	Low to moderate	Compliance refreshers, policy updates
Scenario-based e-learning	Moderate to high	Customer service, leadership, safety
Blended with workshops	High	Behavioural change, technical skill builds
Microlearning bursts	High for reinforcement	Just-in-time support, product launches
Performance support tools	Very high	Field-based roles, complex software

Teams that mix methods across a learning journey usually see the strongest cumulative scores. A short scenario module followed by a microlearning refresher tends to outperform a single long workshop in both engagement and retention.

Coaching support strengthens this further. Subject matter experts who also understand facilitation, such as Dr Dave Brookmire, bring a blend of technical depth and coaching skill that lifts the design quality of the programs they touch.

Design quality is the lever that connects learning spend to business outcomes. Organisations that treat instructional design as a craft — not a content shuffle — see the difference in every survey, every completion report, and every manager conversation about capability. The engagement scores follow when the design standard stays high.

Learning to Performance

Learning to Performance, a complete training approach, gives companies world-class training to drive significant return. This approach includes upfront work (Impact Mapping, design), training (for staff and company executives), and post-training efforts to ensure training transfer. This unique recipe - the key for successful training and adoption - is changing the way companies implement training. This methodology could work with any content for organizations in any industry.