Editor's Note: This was an outstanding presentation within the Corporate Training track: Moving to the Next Generation of eLearning, delivered at the eLearning Conference & Expo in Washington, D.C., April 2001. The study provides an impressive model for all areas of education and training.
Successfully Migrating from the Classroom to the Web: A Case Study from the Heart of Texas
Barbara E. Tischler
Introduction
INTECH Interactive Technologies thanks the e-Learning Conference and Expo for the opportunity to present in detail why the online training program developed for the Betty Hardwick Center in Abilene, Texas, is an outstanding example of a public-private partnership that has successfully applied web technology to improve the training process and reduce costs.
While the following pages detail why the Betty Hardwick Training Project is a prime example of how web technology can be economically and effectively leveraged to improve the staff credentialing and training process, these are the key points:
The project has the potential for a state-wide cost savings benefit of over $750,000 annually, yet started out as a modest investment by an agency which receives 85% of its funds from federal and state sources. Public dollars were partnered with a private agency with the potential to not only recover development costs within one year if only 16% of the counties in Texas avail themselves of the program, but also to save considerable public funding each year thereafter for each county which signs on.
The development process maximized client input without placing undue burden on an already-stretched agency staff. We were able to design and program eight courses within eight months, using on average just a week and a half of Center staff time per course, including allreviews and approvals for each of the courses. Moreover, the resulting online program will save the staff training coordinator an estimated 35 hours per month in teaching time and about eight hours per month in administrative time - effectively adding back a week or more per month into the coordinator's schedule.
Existing content was repurposed to limit costs. In an effort to contain costs and minimize development time, our client to sought permission from the State of Texas to re-purpose existing lesson plans. This had the added benefit of providing content we knew in advance would meet state training requirements.
Recognizing the fiscal constraints of the state agencies served, the product was designed to assure speedy download times for client sites still limited to 28K modem connections. As is typical with many state funded public health agencies, funding for advanced technologies is limited. High speed connectivity could not be assumed at all client sites, so by judiciously using graphical elements and special effects, we could create a product which is engaging and interactive yet not a 'bandwidth clogger.'
The Company
Overview
INTECH Interactive Technologies, a certified woman-owned business enterprise established in 1983, produces custom interactive products for a variety of human resource and marketing needs.
Our products, of which there are more than 150 titles, are delivered via CDs, intranets and the Internet.
Our clients include multinational corporations as well as smaller businesses and non-profit organizations, with product lines and services ranging from manufacturing and finance to oil refining and information technology. Since our customers have operations world-wide, our materials are deployed globally in English, French and Spanish.
Our technological capabilities include expertise in a number of major development environments including Authorware, Flash, HTML, Dynamic HTML, XML, Java and JavaScript.
As a small but nimble organization, INTECH responds quickly to customer needs without bureaucratic delays, produces products more cost-effectively because of low hourly rates achieved through low overhead, and provides more direct client contact which helps assure products match or exceed client expectations.
The Betty Hardwick Project
Description of Business Process
The Center
The Betty Hardwick Center provides a broad array of services to residents of Taylor, Jones, Callahan and Shackelford counties in Texas who have serious and persistent mental illness, mental retardation and related conditions (such as autism), developmental delay, emotional and behavioral disorders, and chemical dependency. The agency has some 30 different funding sources. State funding accounts for 43% of the budget, and 42% is from Medicaid reimbursement. The remaining 15% is derived from local funds and other earned income.
The Center provides services to over 3,200 people and their families every year. It employs more than 200 people, and operates eight different sites.
The Need
The Center must meet Texas Department of Mental Health Mental Retardation (TDMHMR) standards for training its staff both pre-service, during the first 30-90 days of employment, and on a refresher basis. It is a complex body of requirements, because there are differing requirements for a variety of job categories: direct contact, limited direct contact, non-direct contact, ancillary, professional, paraprofessional, etc. A single training coordinator is responsible for scheduling classes and assuring staff compliance with training requirements. This coordinator has to teach a broad array of adults working with mentally ill and mentally retarded consumers. The staff ranges in educational background from high school graduate to persons holding medical and doctoral degrees, and includes everyone from accountants to custodial staff to doctors and counselors. The number of classes taught per month can range from ten to 20 monthly, depending on the needs of the Center staff in terms of new hire training, refresher training, and other certification needs. Limited funding cannot support more than one person in the training function, so the Center has had to recruit contracted trainers and non-training personnel in house to help with the class load, resulting in a patchwork of services which is strained to cover the minimum training needs.
The Solution
Staff at the Betty Hardwick Center determined that by placing select required training online, several benefits could be achieved:
- new hires could train immediately, instead of having to wait for enough new hires to 'make' a class
- fewer classes would have to be offered in the classroom, freeing the training staff to attend to other credentialing duties
- staff members would not have to travel to classes, saving time and travel expense
- staff members could take refresher training in approximately half the time of a classroom course (and in many cases, even less time) resulting in more time-on-task for staff.
The Center staff also sought to build a data management system for the courses, so that student training records would update automatically with test scores, and the training coordinator could generate reports by student, by course, or by date.
The Partnership
An RFP was issued to get an initial set of courses online with a data base management system to track student testing for each course. Several agencies and businesses had to partner to make this venture a practical reality.
- The State of Texas had to extend permission to use its current course content, or developmental costs would have been too high for the Betty Hardwick Center to consider online delivery.
- The Betty Hardwick Center had to commit a portion of its annual budget to get the first set of courses online and the database built. The Center made its commitment with the understanding that it could seek to recoup costs by selling access to the modules to its sister centers throughout the state.
- The selected vendor had to agree to design and development strategies that were extremely cost effective. In addition, the vendor would have to provide a database management system based on Microsoft Access, since the Center could not make an additional financial commitment to purchase a more robust database such as Sybase or Oracle that are now considered to be industry standards.
While the RFP was out for bid, the Center proceeded with obtaining permission from the State to reuse existing course content for the web-based curriculum. By the time the contract was awarded to INTECH, the state had granted permission and all parties were ready to proceed.
After evaluating all the required training that is universal to all job classifications within the Center, INTECH and Center staff jointly determined that eight courses were suited for migration to the Web. Others were ruled out because the content was more affective than cognitive, and better suited to classroom discussions based on existing highly effective videos. Courses that applied to only certain categories were not considered, either, because to achieve the greatest return on investment, the highest number of trainees was desirable.
Description of Technology
Deployment
The courses are delivered via the Internet.
- The delivery systems are Pentium-grade at a minimum.
- To contain development costs, only one browser is supported (Internet Explorer 4.5 or better)
- Connections as slow as a 28.8 modem are accommodated.
Database
- Built to allow a student to log in with an ID.
- The system will record all test scores for each course, not just the latest test score, so that training officers can spot learners with multiple failed test attempts and provide human intervention/remediation.
- The student's record will show all student attempts.
- The results of each test are emailed to the credentialing officer.
- The credentialing officers can view or print reports that show:
- all courses taken by a particular student
- all people taking a specific course
- all training taken
- Each of these reports can be limited by date.
- Currently all data is being stored in Access.
Ownership
- The client owns all source code, allowing the Center to grow, adapt, change the program internally or with another vendor if desired.
Benefits
Time Savings
The training coordinatorbenefits from the online training program because it provides convenient and efficient tracking of the baseline and refresher training of each employee. In particular, the database allows the coordinator to verify at a glance what online training has been taken, and to print out reports that allow easy analysis of who is in compliance with training requirements and who may need reminders or remediation. Additionally, the online program saves the training coordinator from collecting, grading, recording and filing the assessments associated with the courses. With the time saved, the coordinator can better focus on providing classes more specific the needs of the Center and its staff.
- It is estimated that the online training saves the training coordinator more than 40 hours per month, which is used in the cost savings calculated below.
The staff itself benefits from the online program, as well. Staff no longer has to wait for a scheduled class, or struggle to find a class time that does not conflict with time spent in providing services to consumers. As an added advantage, having training available 24 hours a day, seven days a weeks helps staff effectively use gaps in their schedules, such as when a client misses an appointment-an unexpected opening in the day can be used to meet a training requirement when the class is instantly available online and can be taken in an hour or less. With online training, the staff is able to see more consumers and take more job specific training, giving the Center more efficient and better-trained staff.
- It is estimated that the Center saves approximately $4500 in staff wages and $1500 in per diem annually by having the eight courses online.
Total Cost Savings
Initially developed for The Betty Hardwick Center, the courses chosen for online delivery are standard requirements for the other 38 'sister centers' in Texas. There is a marketing plan in place to provide this online program to the other centers on a fee basis to recoup the initial development costs. These recovered dollars will then be available to migrate other modules to online delivery. Concurrently, the other centers statewide who join the program will realize the same cost savings as the Abilene center as their staff members take more training on-site and in less time than when traveling to classroom-based training.
There is a wide mix of training requirements in place for the broad range of staff functions, so cost savings are projected estimates, but the Center expects to save approximately $12,000 in training costs per year, or roughly $3,000 for each county it serves. If these cost savings are paralleled in each of the 254 counties in Texas, over $762,000 in state funding will be saved.
Process Improvement
The training function at The Betty Hardwick Center has realized these improvements with the implementation of the online training program:
- Consistent, reliable, delivery of required training that guarantees each student receives exactly the same content: the wording, the examples, the objectives covered remain identical from site to site, from student to student. The Center has a traceable record that all individuals have been presented with all the required information, protecting the Center from allegations that an employee 'was not told' about a procedure or a requirement, or that a point was not taught, etc.
- Centralized, streamlined record-keeping that instantly scores assessments, records the results to a database, and manages the information such that a training coordinator or state auditor can see at a glance how training requirements are being met.
- Increased test security due to randomization helps assure that students are achieving passing scores because they know the subject rather than just know the answers. It is harder to memorize and share answers when a course has 30-60 test items -and no one knows which 15-25 items might be on any given test. Yet because of the unique way in which the randomization is achieved, the Center can demonstrate that each learner is tested equally for each objective within any given course.
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Project Summary - The Betty Hardwick Center |
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Client |
The Betty Hardwick Center is a regional center in Texas responsible for the care, treatment, rehabilitation and habilitation of persons with mental retardation and persons who are experiencing mental illness or problems with substance abuse. |
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Product |
Internet delivery of required training |
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Audience |
The audience includes direct contact and non-direct contact personnel, both professional and non-professional. Learners range from foster parents and social workers to housekeeping staff and medical staff. |
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Content |
Topics developed for online delivery include
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Sample |
Sample screens from this and other recent projects follow. |
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Point of Contact |
Angel Seca Staff Development and Credentialing Coordinator The Betty Hardwick Center Abilene, TX (915) 690-5235 |
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Screen captures from Internet-based training
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Lean, clean and engaging are the hallmarks of INTECH Internet designs. Bandwidth considerations are carefully balanced against the need for interactivity. This particular course design kept the interface uncluttered and used graphics sparingly to help assure speedy downloads. The graphics shown here are clickable icons learners use to display more detailed information about steps in a procedure. Employees using this as a quick review can choose to by-pass this level of detail, so the screen supports two levels of learning. Lean, clean and engaging are the hallmarks of INTECH Internet designs. Bandwidth considerations are carefully balanced against the need for interactivity. This particular course design kept the interface uncluttered and used graphics sparingly to help assure speedy downloads. The graphics shown here are clickable icons learners use to display more detailed information about steps in a procedure. Employees using this as a quick review can choose to by-pass this level of detail, so the screen supports two levels of learning. Economy is always a consideration at INTECH, where we aim to get the most for our client's money. In this example, the original paper bag icon was re-purposed to support a practice activity. The interactive exercise asked learners to drag information onto the bag to show how it should properly be labeled. This screen shows feedback provided to the learner to help check for understanding. |
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Recent Projects - ScotiaBank
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Client |
ScotiaBank, an international Canadian bank, provides a complete range of retail, commercial, corporate, investment and international banking services to customers around the globe. Through more than 1,600 branches and offices in more than 50 countries, 41,000 employees deliver the quality service that has made ScotiaBank one of North America's premier financial institutions. |
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Product |
Bi-lingual computer-based systems training for bank tellers |
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Audience |
The primary audience is both English- and French-speaking bank tellers who have little or no experience with Windows-based computing systems. Secondary audiences include the managers of the bank branches and customer service representatives. |
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Content |
Two distinct CBTs were developed as part of the overall training plan. The first CD introduces basic Windows concepts in the context of the newly-created custom banking software. The second CD explains the new banking software with a three-pronged approach:
A series of scenarios are then presented to allow the learners to apply their learning and use a combination of the system features to serve the needs of fictional bank customers. |
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Sample |
Sample screens from this project follow. A working demo is available on the accompanying CD. |
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Reference |
John Brisbin Senior Manager Interactive Learning Performance and Training Services Bank of Nova Scotia Toronto, Ontario (416) 866-5311 |
Screen captures from systems training for bank tellers
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Interactive programs can be linear or non-linear, depending on the content and the needs of the audience. This particular training is set up to be sequential for first time learners. A tracking system is built into the program so that once the course is completed, a learner can re-visit lessons in any order. |
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This screen is part of an explanation of two important features of our interactive programs: Demos and Try Its. Demos model a learning point; Try Its are guided practices where learners apply new skills or knowledge and are given feedback to correct or reinforce the learning. |
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Photomontages are used to provide a visual reinforcement of how the new hardware combines with the standard bank machines in a variety of business scenarios. The montage changes with the Demo on this and following screens. |
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As the bulleted items appear, the corresponding part of the photomontage highlights. The final image is shown here. |
Recent Projects - Deere & Company
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Client |
Deere & Company is a worldwide corporation that does business in more than 160 countries and employs approximately 37,000 people globally. Its business lines include the manufacturing and marketing of agricultural, construction, commercial and consumer equipment; various support operations such as parts and engines; and financial services. |
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Product |
Recruiting CD |
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Audience |
The recruiting CD is aimed at attracting top quality information technology (IT) graduates from select universities. The object is to convey to these graduates that Deere & Company is a desirable employer because of its leading edge technologies as well as its competitive benefits and career opportunities. |
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Content |
This content-rich recruiting CD includes:
Interwoven through this information are interviews with a diverse group of recent hires and co-op students as well as leaders of the IT department. |
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Sample |
Sample screens from this project follow. A working demo is available on the accompanying CD. |
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Reference |
Suzanne MacCall Project Manager IS Education and Human Resources Worldwide Deere & Company Moline, IL (309) 765-5454 |
Screen captures from recruiting CD
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Eye-catching designs targeting the intended audience and leveraging the medium of choice for the project create unique and effective designs for each of our projects. This particular design has won an Addy award. |
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Notice how both the text and the graphics work to tie together the company, its technology and its greatest asset, its people. |
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One screen can contain a wealth of information, be visually appealing, and still not appear as a text-heavy page that deters learners. A variety of treatments, ranging from clever use of graphics (such as tractor wheels for the bullets in a list) to photographs from the client's own site, help to "spice up" what could otherwise be perceived as a bland set of topics. |
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Of course, the visual treatment is always driven by the technology in use. In this case, the product was CD-based, so the graphics could be larger and richer because bandwidth issues were not a consideration. |
About the Author:
Barbara Tischler is a senior instructional designer and project manager at INTECH. She has extensive experience in technical and soft skills training development, with particular emphasis on computer-delivered products. Her most recent clients include John Deere, the Bank of Nova Scotia, Bausch & Lomb, and the Betty Hardwick Regional Mental Health/Mental Retardation Center (Abilene, Texas). She is the recipient of awards of excellence from DOE, ASTD, and Lockheed Martin.
Barbara has been a presenter for the International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC) and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). She is a guest lecturer at the University of Tennessee.
She can be contacted as follows:
Barbara E. Tischler, Project Manager
INTECH Interactive Technologies
309 College Street, Maryville, TN 37804.
Phone: 865 984-0200 Fax: 865 984-0207
email: tischlerbe@intechinc.com
company website: www.intechinc.com