Greetings!

In this Issue:

• Like Sea Shells and Snow Flakes No Two Companies Are Alike
• How to Calculate the Cost of custom Web-Based Training Development
• TeraLearn Announces its Newest 3.5 Release

It was a hot Los Angeles afternoon and the air-conditioning in the downtown building was losing the heat war. I sat outside the HR Directors office sweating in my sports coat, tie and matching pants. The week before, I received a call from the Training Manager that Ameron, a concrete pipe manufacture was looking for a training consultant to help with the implementation of new technology for its management team. At about 1:30 pm the HR Manager stepped out of his office and invited me to join him in the conference room. He asked me to sit down and proceeded to illustrate using a white board and a series of multi-colored pens how Ameron was organized, its mission, goals, products, staffing, lines of communication and manufacturing processes. About an hour passed and I asked a few polite questions and just tried to soak it all in since the presentation pace was fast and the amount of organizational information was great. After we pushed past the 90 minute mark the HR Director turned to me and said, OK what are you going to do to help us? .... Learn more

One of the most challenging aspects of web-based training design is projecting how much time and money it costs to create custom web-based training. Companies have used a variety of approaches. One technique uses performance objective count. In this case every 5-7 performance objectives equals one hour of online learning. Another company uses an ILT conversion rule of thumb i.e. when converting instructor led training to the web every 2 hours of instructor led training translates into approximately one hour of online training or a 50% user seat time reduction. Unfortunately, we typically spend way more time and money than estimated on most custom projects. None of these methods are reliable because they do not take into consideration the nature of the content, design treatment or experience of the development team.... Learn more

TeraLearn.com, Inc., a California-based content management company, recently launched its highly anticipated 3.5 release. A few of TeraLearn’s new features include a custom course or curriculum completion certificate, integration with Microsoft Outlook calendar management and sort by features allowing learning resources to be viewed by type, access date or alphabetically. Dr. Eric Parks, COO of TeraLearn.com, points out that, “Organizations are looking for more effective ways to reward online learning.” Research indicates that the award of a certificate is an effective way to motivate completion”... Learn more