Trainers give e-learning a fresh look

When corporate training experts in northern Nevada get together to discuss e-learning this Friday, they're likely to hear how International Game Technology managed to outfox SARS.

IGT a few weeks ago needed to train employees of a Toronto casino who would oversee slot machines sold by the Reno company but travel to the Canadian city is strongly discouraged because of an outbreak of SARS.

Undaunted, IGT delivered the training through an Internet hookup.

"They were very happy with it," said Shawn Derifield, training manager for IGT Gaming Systems.

E-learning the delivery of training over the Internet has been muchtalked- about since the dawning days of the Web, but its development has come in fits and starts.

No one is entirely convinced that elearning's day has arrived in northern Nevada, but the region's chapter of the American Society for Training and Development for the first time will conduct a day-long symposium on the subject Friday.

Keynote speaker for the symposium is Dr.

Margaret Driscoll, the director of strategic ventures for IBM's Mindspan Solutions.

The event also will include exhibits by vendors, breakout sessions and panel discussions about the possibilities of e-learning.

Discussion of the corporate possibilities of e-learning almost always starts with the cost-savings that are possible, said Kurt Frohlich, a Renobased consultant whose Apex Performance Solutions specializes in e-learning.

Organizations that do off-site training usually are first attracted to e-learning by potential savings in travel expenses, Frohlich said.

Then they add in the savings often substantial in printing costs that result from the use of the Web.

A third big attraction is the possibility of keeping training materials constantly updated.

Dan Roberts, whose Reno-based Telos Interactive Inc.

develops courses for e-learning, said the efficiency of Internet-based learning often doesn't get enough consideration from managers.

"You can teach a lot of people in a very short period of time," he said.

And that means that employees who otherwise might be sitting in a training session are back to work more quickly.

So why hasn't e-learning swept the field of corporate training? Frohlich and Roberts cited three reasons money, technology and the attention span of audiences.

Although the costs of developing an Internet-based course are coming down, Roberts said the costs still range from tens of thousands of dollars into the millions.

No matter how fast the payback, that's still a big investment for corporations during an economic downturn.

Frohlich said flatly, "It is not cheaper.

The up-front costs always are higher.

In the long run, you'll make money." The cost issue is particularly difficult, Roberts said, because e-learning proved effective in teaching high-tech applications.

But technology companies have been particularly hard-pressed for most of this decade, and they're skittish about making big investments.

Among the costs of doing an elearning system the right way, Frohlich said, is the employment of the right consultant to make sure both the curriculum and the delivery mechanism work.

It's also important, he said, to get the support of the organization's information technology team.

"You can save yourself a lot of time and heartache," he said.

Technology issues in e-learning, meanwhile, center on bandwidth.

Even though Americans continue to migrate steadily to broadband Internet services, dial-up services continue to account for at least half the country's connections.

Because dial-up services are particularly prevalent in homes, the developer of e-learning classes needs to be careful about how much he loads into a course that might be used by someone at home.

"If you're talking about dial-up, you leave the video in the box," said Frohlich.

Still, Roberts added, limited bandwidth needn't lead to boring courses.

"It's a consideration.

But if you design for it properly, you still can deliver good courses," he said.

Early on, developers of e-learning dealt with low bandwidth by creation of courses that were text-heavy, and Roberts said the industry still is living down the reputation it gained at the time for presenting material in a deadly dull fashion.

The typical user of an e-learning system, Frohlich said, pays attention for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Anything that holds them longer will require greater bandwidth.

(The ASTD symposium "Introducing e-Learning to Your Organization" is from 8:30 a.m.

to 4:30 p.m.

Friday at the main campus of Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno.

For registration information and costs and further details, see the organization's Web site at astdnevada.org)