Everybody's talking about recruiting and retention, but let's not forget about that third R-- retraining. Continuous staff education supports retention goals by fulfilling employees' desire for career development. It also keeps your workforce fit to do not only today's jobs, but tomorrow's as well. Is distance learning the way to meet your company's training and retraining needs? Here are some issues and opportunities to consider.

In simplest terms, distance learning is "electronically delivered instruction to groups or individuals," says Dave Carr of EDS Distance Learning Solutions. Carr spoke last month at the Society for Human Resource Management's War for Talent Conference. His company provides integrated distance learning solutions to organizations interested in better ways to meet their educational requirements.

Over the long haul, studies show, distance learning can save money in a company with a geographically dispersed workforce. But, Carr says, if you are looking to construct your own distance learning system, "the budget needs to go up first." Moreover, he says, such a project requires an executive level commitment in terms of both time and dollars.

If you do decide to grow your own, he warns, be mindful that "there is mass confusion in the marketplace. Common definitions don't exist and vendors can't distinguish themselves from the competition." The message: "Train your staff to be careful when talking to LMS [learning management system] vendors."

Learning curve

Before you can talk to any outsider about building or buying anything, you must know and be able to communicate your company's requirements to any potential solutions provider. You need to consider the pros and cons, for example, of synchronous vs. asynchronous delivery in your environment. Synchronous delivery, he says, is primarily web-based, involves limited interaction, and can be accomplished at a lower cost. Asynchronous delivery, on the other hand, is networked and fully interactive, but costs more.

Staff should also become conversant with what Carr calls the "content delivery continuum" and analyze the company's needs in relation to the available media. Currently, options include audio, text, video, GroupWare, Web-based content, streaming video, and simulations. Study the organization's needs and consider only those methods that will meet your needs. In other words, Carr says, "Don't solve the wrong problem."

Pyramid scheme?

To make sure you solve the right problem in the right way for your organization, Carr says, a distance-learning project should operate as three levels of a pyramid. "You can't create the elements in stovepipes," he cautions. "The project has to be integrated."

At the top of Carr's pyramid is the integration or program development layer, which performs the needs assessment, determines the costs, establishes a schedule, and measures performance. Below that is the application layer, which develops content, creates the learning objects, and establishes the distance learning management tools such as course management and student management systems. At the bottom is the enterprise layer, which represents the system's infrastructure -- including content access ports, desktop management, Web development, conferencing services, LAN/WAN engineering, and LAN/WAN operations management.

Get your ACT together

If a fully customized distance learning solution is beyond your organization's needs or means, the new and growing network of ACT Centers is one source of electronically delivered education and training for your staff. ACT Inc., an independent not-for-profit organization, has partnered with EDS and others to create a nationwide system of distance learning centers. The system aims to bring world-class distance learning capabilities to small- and medium-sized businesses that might otherwise fail to train employees properly due to limited time, money and resources.

The first two ACT Centers opened recently and 30 more are expected to get rolling within the next 60 days, says ACT spokesperson William Crumm. Crumm teamed with Carr at the SHRM confab to show how EDS systems' analysis worked in practice when creating the ACT Centers model. The goal, he says, is to establish more than 250 centers over the next two years.

All you need is a LAN

ACT Centers will offer a vast library of training programs using computers, the Internet and other emerging technologies. Businesses will have access to individual or group training in a wide range of subjects including computers and information technology, industrial safety and technical skills, management and leadership, and professional and personal development.

Based for the most part in community colleges that choose to join the network, an ACT Center consists of a high-end server and workstation that is used to securely access the ACT Web portal via the local institution's LAN. The server holds a library of educational courseware. More specialized courseware can be downloaded from the Web portal as needed.

ACT Centers also feature a learning management system that provides student registration, courseware tracking, scheduling and management decision support tools.

For more information:

Online:
EDS Distance Learning Collaborative Technologies
ACT Center

This article is courtesy of HRWire. All rights reserved.

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